TRANS-ported to Hogwarts
by ManaketeSmoocher
Summary: [DISCONTINUED - See latest chapters for details] Muggleborn John Smith was born as Melanie Smith. Struggling with coming out as male to his family is hard enough without falling in love with some dumb werewolf! [Marauder's Era] [WolfStar][Onesided!OC/Remus] The title is pretty much meaningless, but my friend made a pun and I thought it was funny. Y'know. Because he's trans. Ha?
1. Prologue

On this specific night of September 1st, a first year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was found writing a letter to his best muggle friend. His chocolate brown hair almost looked like one of the owls in the Owlery, and his letter read as follows:

"Dear Becky,

I hope you didn't kill this owl or something (it's not mine), sorry that my fancy new boarding school doesn't have a proper post system. Or address. Don't worry about that part, the owl knows what it's doing. You just have to attach the letter to it's leg and tell it where to go. Anyways, how are things back home? I'm not sure how much I really like this place, to be honest. The dorms are divided by gender (obviously) but I don't exactly have a 'spot' in the boys dorms. Even if I _wanted _a spot in the girl's dorms (which I definitely do not), I wouldn't even be able to get into them. I suppose I'll just sleep in the common room.

I already miss you. It's weird not being able to turn to the side and be able to tell you whatever is on my mind. I'm definitely coming home for the holidays, so I'll see you then! You're the best best friend a best friend could possibly ask for, even if you _are _a year younger than me. Don't worry about me though, I'll be fine. I've already found another spunky redhead to replace you with. Joking, haha. That was a joke. You always told me I was bad at those. It's the thought that counts?

It's getting really late; definitely past curfew and I think my watch is reading at around 10:40? I'll end the letter here even though there's so much left to tell you. I'll write you a new letter in the morning when I wake up, don't worry.

Your best of all best friends,

John Smith"

After John sent the letter, he headed to the common room of the house he had been sorted to by a magical talking hat. Oh, how he wished he could tell Becky everything. It's a shame he has to keep everything a secret from her now. He could remember how they shared all of their secrets before he got his letter. Sleep came easily to him as he nestled down in one of the comfortable couches by the fire, and he dreamed of the magical events that had transpired just earlier that day.

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**A/N- WOAH, it's been a while, huh? I thought of this thing while I was away for like 10 years being Homestuck trash and playing Fire Emblem like my life depended on it. SO YEAH get ready for some gay fic, Remus/OC, aw yiss. God damn, I haven't written anything in like forever jeez, is this any good?**

**It's just gonna start off with a bunch of flashbacks to get you caught up to speed *siiiighs* sorry about that. I kinda started it at a funny place on the totally linear timeline.**


	2. Chapter 1

The muggleborn John Smith was standing between platforms Nine and Ten at King's Cross Station. Green eyes scanned his ticket in confusion as he wished his best friend, Becky, could be beside him. His lips curled into a smile as he thought of her. Her bob of bright red hair always made her easy to spot in a crowd and her friendly blue eyes could coax a smile out of just about anyone, no matter how grumpy and antisocial. In fact, she would probably run straight into the wall to find Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Maybe he should try that, just… without the running. He walks at a casual pace, pushing his trunk in front of him. A completely different atmosphere hit his senses as he stepped through the wall and, looking up, he saw the most beautiful red steam engine. He could hardly wait to tell Becky; she always _was _fond of trains, and The Hogwarts Express certainly takes the cake.

Unfortunately, it looks like he got here a little later than he would have preferred, so didn't have much time to admire the train. He had no trouble boarding the train, but finding a seat was a problem. Most of the compartments were full, but eventually he found one with only three people in it.

One was a redhead with bright, emerald eyes that shone like gemstones. Her conversation partner wore black robes to match his hair and eyes. The third person sat on the other side of the compartment from them, looking out the window. His dusty brown hair was pulled back into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck, and strands of grey hair were visible. The redhead smiled as John walked in.

"Hello, I'm Lily Evans!" She elbowed her friend lightly, prompting him to introduce himself.

"... Severus Snape." He sounded a little irritated that this new boy had stolen Lily's attention as soon as he entered.

"I'm John Smith. Nice to meet you, Evans, Snape." He responded politely, ignoring the slight glare from the black haired companion.

"Oh, you can call me Lily. I'm sure we'll be great friends, and Sev surely won't mind if you call him Sev." Severus's face did not seem in agreement with that statement, so John decided he wouldn't call him by the nickname.

"Alright then." John said as he sat down by the unnamed brunet. "What's your name?" He received no response.

"We think he's sleeping," Lily informed him. "He was like that when we came in."

"That's a shame. I was hoping to meet him."

Lily nodded in agreement as Severus gave a noncommittal shrug. A comfortable silence filled the compartment and John noticed Severus's constant glances in Lily's direction. Minutes passed and Lily returned to her previous conversation with Severus, something about houses. It sounded complicated, and John wasn't paying much attention to them. His gaze was focussed on the nameless boy. He wondered what he was like?

"What about you, John?"

"What about me?"

"She's asking you what house you want to be in. There's Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin." Prompted Severus.

"I… don't really know anything about houses to be honest." John admitted, scratching the back of his head. He was sure that "Hogwarts: A History" book had it in there somewhere, but god, that book is just _so _boring. Severus gave him an odd look for not knowing and Lily launched into an explanation.

"Well… I suppose I don't really care where I end up. Hufflepuff sounds kind of nice."

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor, house of the brave!"

"Slytherin." Severus said almost lazily, after Lily finished posing like a hero.

"I think I belong in Ravenclaw." The sleeping boy had awakened. He wasn't looking at any of them in particular, but he had turned around and they could all see his pale, scarred face. His golden eyes stood out, freckled with small flecks of chocolate brown. John was the first to speak after the silence that followed.

"Ravenclaw sounds nice. I hope you don't mind me asking for your name?"

"Remus Lupin." He glanced at them. "You?"

The three of them introduced themselves and the newly named Remus nodded slightly before returning his gaze to the window. A book lay closed in his lap, seemingly forgotten. The sun was setting outside, the warm hues of pink and gold landing almost perfectly on the brunet. Despite his tattered robes and tired expression, John would dare to say Remus looked beautiful. In this lighting at least. If he was an artist, he would likely attempt to paint this moment.

"Stop staring at me." John blushed and looked down. He hadn't realized he'd been that obvious.

"Sorry." He paused as he searched for something to say. Lily and Severus had begun speaking of potions and Remus was still looking out the window. "What book is that?"

Remus showed him the book cover (something about lycanthropy) and didn't talk for the rest of the train ride. Soon it got dark and an older classmate came to tell them to change into their robes. Remus and Severus had already changed, and Lily stood up at that point.

"I'm going to go find the bathroom."

"Oh, I'll go with you." John stated, also standing up.

"Why not just change in here? You _are _a _boy, _aren't you?" Severus questioned.

"... I'm shy." John said nothing else to support the obvious lie as he and Lily left the compartment. Severus decided he definitely wouldn't be a very good Slytherin.

"You must be really shy if you can't change in front of them."

"Oh, I'm not really shy. I just didn't wanted to change in front of them."

"Oh?" Lily was curious, obviously.

"Hmm," John searched for a way to answer her. "You'll see at the sorting cereony." He decided not to elaborate and they went their separate ways to the bathrooms.

As they walked back to the compartment, they talked about the sorting ceremony.

"How do you think we get sorted? Sev said we have to fight a _dragon_." A laugh escaped John's lips.

"I think he was probably joking, but what do I know? I'm just a muggleborn." John suddenly wondered if Severus was even capable of joking.

"Oh, so am I," She giggled. "That's why I believed him. I've been worried the whole train ride, but now I feel a bit silly. Do you think it'd be fun to fight a dragon?"

"For some people, maybe."

They got back to the compartment to find Severus and Remus reading Potions and DADA books, respectively. The remainder of the train ride had them reading as Lily and John shared humorous stories from their lives. When the train arrived at the station, they disembarked and heard a loud, friendly voice calling out for "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" The voice belonged to a mountain of a man. John wondered if he was a giant? The crowd of other first years separated them from Remus, but only John seemed to care. The three left in the group got in a small boat, teeth chattering. September air is nowhere near as warm as the interior of the Hogwarts Express.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Called out the large man, taking an entire boat to himself. John supposed he counted as four people.

Nobody else got in their boat, and John vaguely wondered where Remus ended up being. The thought left his mind immediately as the boats began moving on their own. Him and Lily seemed entranced by this, and the hint of a smile appeared on Severus's face at Lily's excitement. He seemed unsurprised by the boats moving. Hr probably isn't a muggleborn, John thought.

But the boats moving was nothing compared to their first glimpse of the great castle.

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**A/N- So this is a helluva lot longer than the first chapter haha. Next is gonna be sorting and possibly a flashback within a flashback. I don't know how long this is going to be hu**

**ALSO, THIS IS IMPORTANT!**

**Does anyone have suggestions for the title?**

**I am AWFUL at titles . **


	3. Chapter 2

Hogwarts castle certainly was a sight to behold. Lights twinkled from nearly every window, reflecting onto the smooth glassy lake below. The deep cobalt sky was dotted with stars scattered in the most nonsensically organized manner that could only be brought about by mother nature herself. Tall spires seemed to ascend to the heavens above, if one believed in such things. The moon was nearly full that night, and its soft yellow glow accented the rooftops, completing the magical fairytale look the Four Founders were surely aiming for. Collective gasps sounded from every boat; even Hagrid's. It was in precise moments like these that the barriers separating purebloods, halfbloods, muggleborns, and everyone in between seemed to dissolve as they all reveled in the absolutely breathtaking beauty that was and still is, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Soon, the plethora of first years (plus Hagrid) arrived at the great castle, to be greeted by a stern looking woman. Her greying hair was tied up in a tight bun, but despite her strict appearance, it was easy to see that beneath that layer she cared for all of her students as a mother would their own child. She greeted them with a speech that she didn't seem to put much thought into; implying that she repeated this very speech every year. Minerva McGonagall (as she had introduced herself as) led them into the Great Hall.

This room was impressive by every standard, due to both the large size and ceiling. Said ceiling emulated the clear night sky so perfectly that it was hard to believe said ceiling was even there. John was positive that the ceiling (as well as the floating candles) were enchanted by magic. After all, this _is _Hogwarts.

By the time the woman had placed the old ratty hat on that unimpressive stool, John would have been surprised if it _hadn't _burst into song. It did just that, and as he listened to it sing of the four houses and their defining traits, John couldn't help but think that for a hat, it had quite a nice singing voice. He then found himself lost in thought until he realized the hat was calling names.

He distantly recalled an "Aconai, Caldon" being sorted into Ravenclaw and sitting at the table second to the left with colours of blue and bronze. Those are pretty colours. John stopped for a moment and wondered if this Caldon person's name was completely made up. It probably was.

A boy with black hair and grey eyes was called up by the name of "Black, Sirius" and John couldn't help but think he was kind of cute. Everyone was kind of cute at Hogwarts. That's sort of unfair, he thought to himself as he compared himself to them. He broke out of his thoughts as the hat bellowed:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And the red and gold clad table on the far left erupted into applause. The table second to the right looked appalled that Sirius Black got sorted into Gryffindor. John wondered what the big deal was? The green ones (as he so affectionately dubbed them) quickly masked their shock with harsh glares, but young Mr. Black didn't seem to give a crap as he put the hat down and strutted off to join his new house.

John quickly realized the sorting was going in order of last name, and zoned out until a certain "Evans, Lily" was called up to the hat. He tapped the redhead's shoulder and gave her what he hoped to be a comforting smile. Her nervous face relaxed a bit and she walked up to the hat. John noticed Severus's eyes trailing after her, as well as a second pair belonging to a messy head of black hair. It didn't take very long for the hat to shout out:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And Lily Evans took the hat off, beaming at Severus and John, though the former didn't look too happy. He tried to put a smile on for her sake, but John could tell Severus didn't think they'd be in the same house. The redhead skipped off towards Gryffindor table, and the eyes of the messy haired boy trailed after her. Gryffindor house seems to be attracting all of the fun people. John racked his brain for any other names he cares about, and recalled the boy from the train. Lupin, was it?

"Lupin, Remus!" McGonagall called, and the boy with the shabby robes walked to the stool as quickly as he dared. The warm glow of the candles made him look delectable. Another case of extremely attractive people at Hogwarts. In completely different ways of course. The hat seemed to be debating for a long time, and John got a little nervous. What if you don't fit in a house? Though Remus seemed pretty sure he would be a Ravenclaw. The hat finally sorted him into Gryffindor, and John's wish to be in Gryffindor was even stronger.

The messy haired boy (named James Potter) and a mousy looking boy (Peter Pettigrew) were the only other names he caught in between his increasingly nervous thoughts. They were both sorted into Gryffindor, and John knew they were nearing his name. He wondered if he would be put in the house he wants? He had previously thought he was fond of Hufflepuff, but now as his friend was sorted into the house of the lion, he couldn't help but want to be with someone he knew. John was also nervous about something else, and soon, his name was called, ringing through the Great Hall in the most dreadful manner he could think of.

"Smith, Melanie!"

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_**Word Count: 940**_

**Just a quick update, all I did was change his birth name and add the word count.**


	4. Chapter 3

"Melanie Smith. Please come to be sorted." McGonagall repeated. John could feel Lily's eyes on him as she realized what he meant on the train. Severus was also staring at him. He didn't move.

"Ms. Smith, if you wou-" She began.

"Mister." John stated, not budging. He would not move until he was called by the proper name.

"Pardon?"

"My name is John Smith." He said, making an effort to make his voice deeper. The Great Hall began whispering. Here was a first year, correcting Professor McGonagall herself.

"Ms. Smith, the list says-"

"The list is wrong." There was a pause, and Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.

"Smith, John!"

John broke away from the crowd and made his way up to the hat. The last thing he saw before the hat covered his eyes was the uninterested face of Remus Lupin. Soon, a voice was speaking in his head. It was the hat, and John couldn't say he was surprised.

'Ahh, well you're a brave young man now, aren't you, Mr. Smith?'

'You think so?' John was pleased that the hat recognized his gender. If a hat could chuckle, chuckle it did. 'I don't think I am really. I'd never be able to fight, say, a dragon.'

'Bravery comes in many forms, young man.'

'If you say so. I would love to be in Gryffindor with my friend.'

'Ahh, very loyal too. Though I can see you wouldn't make a very good Hufflepuff. You're not exactly the most patient fellow.' John nodded slightly, already kind of wishing he could go eat. 'Well than, better be...'

"GRYFFINDOR!"

John breathed out a sigh of relief and grinned as Gryffindor table erupted into applause. The red hair of Lily Evans was easy to spot as she clapped the loudest. He almost forgot to take the hat off in his rush to sit by her. Severus was probably glaring at him from across the hall, but he didn't care in the slightest.

"Oh, I was so worried you wouldn't get into Gryffindor!" Lily exclaimed as she hugged him. The Potter guy frowned slightly and John quickly realized that Lily was quite popular already. John put it at the back of his mind and laughed a little, patting her back.

"Oh, me too! I'm glad I didn't get Hufflepuff." Lily nodded, and quickly shushed him.

"It's Sev's turn."

They watched as he was sorted into Slytherin and Lily look more than a little sad that her friend would not be joining them. She clapped quietly and Severus slouched over to the green table. John decided to comfort her.

"Hey, at least he got in the house he wanted. He didn't seem like much of a Gryffindor anyways." Lily cheered up at that.

"You're right, though I heard Gryffindor and Slytherin are rival houses."

"I can imagine that would make things difficult, but whatever. Let's just see what happens."

"Yes, let's." She smiled, then turned to Remus, who was sitting nearby. "How about you, Lupin? I thought you were expecting Ravenclaw?" The brunette looked a little startled that someone was talking to him and looked up from his plate that was nearly entirely piled with meat.

"Oh. Yeah... I guess I'm glad I'm not, now that I think of it." He answered a little quietly before going back to his plate.

John blinked. When had the Headmaster stood up? He appeared to be sitting back down, as if he just gave a speech. Weird. And when had the food appeared on the table? Goodness, getting used to this magic business is going to be difficult. He smiled as he began picking food to eat, chatting with Lily. Black and Potter seemed to have made quick friends with each other, joking around. Pettigrew was trying to get a word in ever so often, and Remus was ignoring them. Remus was ignoring everything except his food actually. Maybe he's shy? John decided to try and talk to him later.

Soon, Headmaster Dumbledore was dismissing them and the prefects began guiding the first years to their common rooms. John and Lily looked around in wonder, taking in the sights of the talking paintings and moving stairs among others. It seemed all too soon that they arrived at the Pink Lady's painting, entered Gryffindor tower and were told where the dorms were. John made his way up to the boys dorms, feeling slightly nervous and not noticing the encouraging smile Lily had been giving him. Black, Pettigrew, Potter, and Remus were the only other first year boys besides himself, yet it was clear to see that there were only four beds. Black took notice.

"Oi, where's your bed?"

"I don't know. Maybe they thought I was a girl." John shrugged.

"Yeah, I mean they called you Melanie at the sorting. What's that all about?"

"I... I don't really want to talk about it." He made an effort to look uncomfortable because he was honestly not in the mood to explain himself.

"Well, if you don't have a bed you better bunk with one of us!" Black declared, looking proud that he thought of a solution. The curtains around Remus's bed closed quickly after he said that. John looked in that direction, trying to keep his blush down.

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Oh, come off it, we're all men here after all." Potter stated, flopping onto his own bed.

"N-no, really. I'll just sleep down in the common room." He smiled and rushed downstairs before they could get another word in; he really didn't want to talk about this.

"Oh, John! I was wondering if you were going to come down." Lily was sitting on the couch by the fire, sending him a warm smile.

"And why's that?" He smiled back, glad that she was still using his preferred name. She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, there seems to be an extra bed in the girl's dorm. Along with a trunk with the nametag of John Smith. I think it's safe to say that belongs to you." John blushed a little, feeling as if that was a silly question.

"Do you know where the owlery is?" He asked after a moment. She shook her head.

"Sorry." She stood up. "I opened your trunk and brought down some pajamas for you." She handed them to him before hugging him. "Good night, John."

"Night, Lily." He hugged back and smiled, waiting for her to go upstairs before changing into the soft, chicken patterned pajamas. Checking his watch read 9:28 and he set off to find the owlery, occasionally stopping to ask a painting for directions if they happened to be awake.

Hogwarts isn't too hard to navigate after all.

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_**Word Count: 1,119**_

**Still not really sure where the story is going;; Also, if you're wondering why I changed the name... Most trans people aren't about to choose a name that sounds almost exactly like their birth name.**


	5. Chapter 4

John was awoken by gentle nudging and bright green eyes staring directly at him. He let out an awkward squeak before almost falling off the couch he had fallen asleep on the previous night. The redhead giggled, steadying him before handing him an outfit. John casually wondered when he would be moved to the proper dorm. Perhaps Professor McGonagall doesn't know his situation entirely?

"I brought you some clothes. Your wardrobe isn't all that exciting, you know." John looked at the plain grey sweater and pants she had handed him and shrugged, not really finding it in himself to care.

"My parents won't let me buy anything more boyish. They're still mad at me for cutting my hair."

"I would ask why on earth they would get mad at you, but if I was your mum I'd be ashamed that my son had cut his hair in such an atrocious manner." John blushed and mumbled to himself. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that?"

"It's nothing. Is there a restroom nearby I could change in?" Lily nodded, and the two of them started making their way to the nearest restrooms.

"I did a little exploring when I woke up. It'd be terrible if I got lost on my way to, oh, I don't know, _Charms _or something." John agreed to some extent.

"I'd be more concerned if I were late to Transfiguration. I'm really looking forward to that class." Lily nodded in some form of understanding.

"John, I don't mean to change the subject-"

"Then why are you?" She lightly slapped his arm, earning a laugh from the short boy.

"Anyways, what's the deal with your gender? You introduced yourself as male, so you _obviously _must be a boy, but all of the official rosters and such call you Melanie." John frowned, actually a little surprised she didn't say anything before.

"Well I mean…" He searched for a way to explain it. "I was born as a girl, I guess. My legal name is Melanie. I just never felt right as a girl, so… I found a book in the library once about this sort of stuff. It was a pretty recent book, I mean, nobody really talks about 'transgender' people at all. I read through it and I learned a lot and realized that I just identified more as a boy than a girl. And I had always liked the name John, so I just chose it. My family doesn't know yet because… I'm a little scared to tell them. My best friend Becky knows though. She's the only one I told before you." He finished explaining, and could only hope she wouldn't judge him. He highly doubted she would, considering what he had seen of her so far. Lily started laughing a little after processing the information. "What?"

"Y-you could have just said you were born as a girl but your brain is a boy!" John blushed. She was right. Well, it's natural to be more verbose when you're nervous. Probably.

"Oh shut it, I'm going to go get changed."

"Oh, oh, oh! You should let me do your hair!" Lily looked excited. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you didn't do the best job and-"

"Lily. You're my only friend here thus far, but I don't trust you with scissors around my neck." Lily pouted.

"Fine then. Go change, I'll wait out here."

John quickly changed into his robes and encountered an irritated Ms. Evans. Before he could ask what happened she mentioned something about a certain Mr. Potter and started walking (read: stomping) to the Great Hall. They found their way easily enough from the help of a few friendly paintings. When they were outside the doors to the Great Hall, Lily took a deep breath to compose herself, before walking in. She sent a smile and a wave in Severus's direction and he shyly waved back. As soon as Lily turned her back, Severus glared at him. John decided he needed to do something to assure Severus that he wasn't interested in Lily in any way other than friendship. She's too female for his tastes anyways. John snapped out of his thoughts when an older student (possibly a 6th year) tapped him on the shoulder.

"You okay? You're spacing out a bit." Oh dear Merlin he's good-looking and has a voice like velvet. Don't melt John, that would be highly embarrassing.

"O-oh umm yeah!" He blushed. Jeez. Way to keep your cool. "I-I just kinda got distracted hehe, I'll be going to my t-table now!"

A few snickers were heard from a nearby table and in his rush to get to Gryffindor table, he nearly fell on his face. This earned a few more laughs and he huffed to himself before recovering and marching proudly to his table. Everyone trips and gets flustered sometimes! And nobody can deny that he was extremely attractive, dear lord. He found himself sitting in the nearest seat available at his table. It wasn't as though he particularly enjoyed that attention. It was still embarrassing. Besides, he had to make some other friends besides Lily anyways. He found himself sitting directly next to Remus Lupin and wondered to himself why everyone at this school is so attractive.

"Your name is Remus, right?" Begin the small talk.

"Yeah. You're Smith." Well that's not very friendly.

"I have a first name you know…"

"I know. I'm just choosing not to use it because I don't know which one is correct." Oh. That's actually quite considerate. John blushed a little, looking down and starting to eat his pancakes.

"John. I'm John Smith."

"... My middle name is John."

"I don't have a middle name." Remus nodded, reading his book as he ate a slice of toast. It didn't have anything on it.

"That doesn't look like it'd taste very good. There's a bunch of different spreads you know. I really like the apple butter, but the chocolate-hazelnut spread is good too, I bet." Remus's attention was caught at the word chocolate, and his amber eyes looked into John's green ones. He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. "Y-yeah, it tastes really good if you're into chocolate."

"Chocolate is okay." He said that as if he was trying his hardest not to reveal how much he enjoys the brown substance. John smiled slightly to himself and began spreading the chocolate-hazelnut spread on a piece of toast before handing it to Remus. Remus looked slightly surprised that John spread the spread for him, and almost hesitantly took the bread. After taking the first bite, his eyes twinkled and he quickly ate the rest. The young bookworm put his book in his bag, much to the shock of his roommates, and began taking as many chocolate things as he could. Chocolate milk, chocolate syrup on chocolate chip pancakes, more chocolate spread for his toast, etcetera.

Once you trigger Remus's lust for chocolate, there's no stopping him.

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**_Word Count: 1,162_**

**I might be updating again soon~**


	6. Chapter 5

Professor McGonagall began handing out the Gryffindor schedules. It seemed all the first years had their classes together, due to there only being an average of about 9 or 10 of them per year. They had each class joined with a different House. John was one of the last ones to receive his schedule, and when he did, a smile appeared on his lips. His legal name had been scratched out and his real name written beside it in the elegant scrawl of the Headmistress. The ink looked to be still drying, so John could only assume she did it last minute. Remus didn't wait for John to get his schedule, and had already left before he looked over it. Lily made her way over to him, avoiding a certain Potter. The redhead stood beside him and waited for him to stand up.

"You have Transfiguration first, right?"

"Well yeah, aren't all the schedules the same until around third year?"

"Are they? That's kind of odd." John shrugged in response before his face lit up and he changed the subject.

"We have Transfiguration first! I already read all about Gamps Laws of Elemental Transfiguration and the four branches of magic!" Lily giggled at his excitement.

"Are you sure you aren't supposed to be in Ravenclaw?"

"I'll have you know that I'm very brave!" John stated with a blush.

The brunette then proceeded to stand up from the table while stepping on his robes and falling right over. He quickly picked himself back up and dusted himself off as if nothing happened. Lily stiffled a giggle, picking up her friend's forgotten bag from the floor. After handing it to him she decided to bring up a slightly more serious topic.

"Professor McGonagall teaches Transfiguration. She's the head of our house, so do you think you should talk to her before or after class about your sleeping arrangements?" The two of them began walking.

"Well we're early, so I'd like to get it done with as soon as possible. Will you come with me? I'm a little nervous."

"Of course I'll go with you." She have him an encouraging smile. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"

John shrugged at that and the two of them began taking a staircase. After a moment of bickering and Lily not wanting to let go of her pride, the two of them stopped by a painting to ask for directions to McGonagall's classroom. They arrived in half the time it would have taken them had they not talked to the painting, but instead of gloating, John poked his head into the classroom. The only person there was a certain Remus John Lupin, sitting towards the back of the room. Deciding that he definitely did _not _want his crush knowing the full details of his situation, he almost turned right back around. A raised eyebrow from Ms. Evans made him rethink this urge, and he forced himself to walk into the classroom. Upon realizing that Professor McGonagall was nowhere to be seen, John cleared his throat to address Remus.

"Have you seen the Professor?" There was a moment of silence before Remus realized that he was being spoken to.

"She's at her desk." John turned to look at the desk, only to see a cat.

"But…" His eyes widened and he gasped suddenly. "B-but that means you're an A-Animagus!"

After seeing the marks around the cat's eyes resembling glasses, the brunette had nearly smacked himself for not realizing sooner. Minerva McGonagall the cat looked to have a smile on her face as she saw the awe filled expression on her student's face. She leapt gracefully from the table, changing back to her human form and landing on her feet quite easily. It took all of John's willpower not to ask her a multitude of questions that had just arisen. He had come to class early for a reason after all!

"I'm impressed that you realized so quickly. Now, what is it that you came here for?" John shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.

"Well…" He glanced back to where Remus was sitting. "It's about my sleeping arrangements…" The young man kept his voice quiet, hoping the brunette didn't hear him.

"Ahh, yes." McGonagall turned around, facing her desks as she went through some papers. "I'll be able to take care of that before tonight, don't worry." John sighed in relief. "Though… I would like to know the full situation. Is it at all possible for you to come in during lunch to speak with me?"

"I… Yes, I suppose so. Could Lily come with me?"

"If that makes you feel safer."

The professor smiled at the two of them before she finished organizing her papers. She proceeded to turn back into her cat form, likely to startle the rest of the first years when they came in. John and Lily quickly took their seats at the front as John excitedly started telling her what he knew about Transfiguration thus far. As the time for class to start came near, the other first years began to trickle in. After making an off-hand note about how they had class with Ravenclaw, the two of them became quiet. When everyone had arrived, the Professor turned from her Animagus form to her usual appearance, shocking the class. The brunette Gryffindor at the front of the room couldn't help but laugh. He already knew this would be his favorite class.

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_**Word Count: 914**_

**So sorry that I haven't updated in so long! I'd like to take this moment to let you know that I've changed John's birthname to Melanie, as most trand people don't choose a name that sounds so close to their birth name.**

**Also, if you'd like to have your OC in this fic, please PM me because I would love to write your OCs in!**


	7. Chapter 6

After what John thought was an extremely exciting Transfiguration lesson, Lily dragged him off to Charms. The two of them arrived in the Charms classroom and John remembered that they would be with the Slytherins. He spotted Severus and turned to Lily to point him out, but she had already seen him and John found himself standing alone. As soon as he made the decision to sit by her, the seat had been occupied by a Gryffindor girl he didn't know. Shrugging, he scanned the class for empty spots. He found one by a certain Remus Lupin and grinned to himself before claiming the seat.

"Hello, Remus!" He greeted in what he hopes would be perceived as friendly. When the other brown haired boy didn't respond, John felt his spirits drop, but only slightly. "Remus?"

"Why do you keep talking to me." His voice was flat, and it made it sound like he didn't want an answer. John didn't care for that though.

"I like talking to you." It also didn't hurt that John thought he was cute.

"What do you want from me?" He sighed in a very tired manner, and John raised his eyebrows in slight surprise.

"Is it so hard to believe that I just want to be your friend?"

Before Remus could answer him, Professor Flitwick began to go over the syllabus with the class. John found Charms to be a little bit boring, when compared to Transfiguration. Instead of hanging onto his every word, as he had done with Professor McGonagall, he decided to doodle in his notebook. As he had come from a muggle family, John thought that quills and parchment were strange and cumbersome. He refused to use a quill unless absolutely necessary. The muggleborn boy was so immersed in his doodles that he didn't realize class had ended until Lily poked him on the nose. He blinked, noticing Severus giving him a dirty look from the door before he reacted properly.

"Oh, is class over?"

At Lily's nod, he began to gather his stuff, becoming mildly upset when he saw that Remus had already left. A look at a clock made it clear that lunch was next and John looked at Lily, wondering if she had remembered what McGonagall had requested. She smiled gently, and told Severus that she would be taking care of important business during lunch so she would not be walking with him to the Great Hall. The Slytherin boy didn't look pleased, but shrugged it off, giving the two of them a curt goodbye before leaving them. He seemed upset.

"You don't have to come with me if you don't want to… I don't think Severus appreciates that you're hanging around me so much." John felt a little bit guilty. He really needed to talk to Lily's friend soon.

"If Sev doesn't like it then that's unfortunate because he doesn't decide who I get to be friends with. Besides, I do want to go with you. Come on, let's get to Professor McGonagall quickly."

Lily laced her hand in his and smiled in an encouraging manner before the two of them set off to the Transfiguration professor's room. He found himself only slightly surprised as she practically dragged him alongside her. The redhead had a surprisingly good memory, and John felt that they had reached Professor McGonagall's room much sooner than they had the first time. As soon as they had walked in, the woman at the desk looked up at them. She picked her wand up, waving it precisely at the door as it closed. A locking sound could be heard, and John felt a large part of the nerves he had been feeling melt away.

"I'm glad you came. I was concerned you might have just slipped off instead." The Transfiguration professor greeted them. John laughed nervously. "Would you be comfortable explaining your situation?"

"O-oh, yes, if you'd like." He found himself nodding nervously. Lily squeezed his hand and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He had been able to tell Lily, so what was wrong with telling his teacher? She seemed to be waiting calmly for an answer. After the moment he took to work up his nerve, he spoke.

"I'm… Well, I'm transgender. I don't really want too many people to know about it though. They might treat me differently…" He almost sighed in relief when she understood what transgender meant. She had a small smile on her face, though he didn't know why. "My parents don't know yet. The only people who do are my friend Becky, Lily, and, well… you."

"That's all I need to know. Thank you, Mr. Smith." She paused before continuing. "I just want you to know that you can come to me if you need anything. I'll try to help in whatever way I can."

"Th-thank you, Professor! But… I'm just curious about why you seem to know about… this kind of thing."

"My dear, it would be near impossible to be friends with Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore for all these years without educating myself."

* * *

_**Word Count: 849**_

**Ahh, this feels short. I'm really bad about chapter length, you must forgive me. I've lost my burst of imagination for this story once more, so I'll probably start work on Another Chance again. If you don't know what that is, it's my Fire Emblem Awakening fic centering around my Avatar in a modern(ish) setting.**

**Anyways, I'll update this sometime in the future, though I have no guarantees as to when.**

**Until then, au revoir, mes petits lecteurs~!**

**(PS - i am not fluent in French I just know little tidbits shhh)**


	8. Chapter 7

John found himself nearly falling asleep in Herbology, Lily's sharp stare being the only thing keeping him awake. That, and the fact that he was remembering the warnings of deadly plants like the Mandrake/Mandragora/Screaming-Baby-Death-Plant. He found himself disliking Herbology very much. The only plants he cared for were the pretty and harmless ones, like regular grass and muggle-flowers. Most muggle flowers, that is. As someone who wanted nothing more than the thrill of understanding Transfiguration, he didn't see himself pursuing a career path that involved knowing how to avoid things like Devil's Snare. What was Devil's Snare anyways? The name sounded familiar, but he could not, for the life of him, remember what it was. He shrugged it off, and nearly ran out of the greenhouse when class ended. The only thing stopping him was the fact that he didn't want people staring at him. Plus, he would have been leaving Lily behind, and he definitely wanted to keep his only friend at that school.

They had a little more than two hours before dinner, so John stated that he wanted to visit the library. Lily shrugged, saying she was going to go find Severus, and the two of them separated. It didn't take John too long to walk to the library, and he found himself being stared at by Madame Pince. After her short appraisal, she pointed him towards the library rules. A quick look at the list was taken to appease her, and when she seemed satisfied that he knew the rules, he went off to go look for books. Many of the things he was interested in involved either Transfiguration or dragons, and not only ten minutes later, he was nestled on the couch in some obscure location of the large book-filled room. He probably would have stayed there had a pale, scarred hand not placed itself on the page he was reading. John looked up to see the face of Remus Lupin.

"Evans asked me to look for you."

"Lily?"

"Yes. It's dinnertime."

"Dinnertime?"

At Remus's unamused look, John realized he hadn't been listening to him at all. He had instead been admiring his face and wondering where the scars came from. The boy in front of him removed his hand from the book, and what he had said clicked in John's mind. His watch showed that it was indeed dinnertime. Blurting out a quick apology to Remus, he began gathering the books and putting them in the box that sorted them out to their proper locations. After bookmarking his page and checking the book out, it occurred to John that Remus was still with him. They made eye contact, and the other boy quickly pretended he wasn't looking at him. Curious, John spoke as they left the library.

"You didn't have to wait for me."

"... I didn't see the point in rushing out the door."

"But you don't even like talking to me." John received no response. "Or do you? You're kind of hard to read sometimes."

"Good." He pouted at Remus's response.

"That wasn't an answer!"

"Well-" Remus looked around. "Hey look, there's Evans."

"What, where?" John followed Remus's eyes to see his redheaded friend. "Oh. Wait, you're changing the subject."

"What subject?" John didn't answer, as Lily had ran up to them.

"John! There you are! I couldn't find you anywhere, I thought you left the library."

"I was just in a kind of…"

"Annoyingly hard to find location." Remus provided.

The three of them made their way to the Great Hall, Lily speaking the most out of the group. Apparently her and Severus had been talking about some extremely fascinating Potions-related things. John found he didn't care much for potions. They were kind of like cooking, and he really wasn't any good at cooking. That was Becky's job. The two of them had always talked about growing up and moving into a flat somewhere, getting silly, impossible jobs with Becky being in charge of food, and John being in charge of, well, being John. It dawned upon him that their plan had been for John to laze about doing nothing but writing, which he wasn't even good at, if he was being honest. Becky would have provided for the whole house and all the food. Lily snapped him out of his daydream.

"Are you even listening?"

"He's probably thinking about the girl he writes to back where he's from."

"Girl?" Lily turned to face John. "Girl?" She repeated, emphasizing the word.

"Girl?" Even John seemed confused.

"Becky." Remus provided.

"Oh yeah, Becky. I actually was thinking about her. We used to talk about moving into a flat together, haha."

"You mentioned Becky, but you never said she was your girlfriend." Lily looked slightly offended.

"Girlfriend?"

"You just said you two talked about moving in together."

"I'm gay." Lily blinked.

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry." She blushed, and John swore he could see Remus suppressing a laugh. "I-I mean, I just assumed, why did I assume that?" John laughed at his flustered friend.

"It's fine, let's go eat!"

The trio sat down, Remus still not saying much. John had decided early on that the bookworm wasn't very talkative. Dinner passed uneventfully, and the three of them ended up walking to Gryffindor tower together. They got lost, though really, there was no need for it. It wasn't as though asking the paintings was out of the question, but Lily wanted to prove she could find her way back on her own. Evidently she couldn't, and the only reason they made it back before curfew was because Remus had a good sense of direction. Entering the common room, they all seemed tired, and the only thing John wanted was to fall asleep in his bed.

The bed that John recalled Professor McGonagall promised would be moved to the boy's dorm that night. He and Lily exchanged a look before racing up the stairs, leaving Remus behind. Not particularly caring that they left, Remus claimed a seat by the large window, glancing distastefully at the moon. Upstairs, John made beeline for his new bed, throwing himself on the soft mattress before letting out a contented sigh. Lily laughed at him, and soon the two of them were struck with a fit of giggles. They decided that the day was pretty good, overall, just like the rest of the year.

* * *

_**Word Count: 1,064**_

**I'm gonna be frank here, this chapter feels super short and rushed, and it's all because I wanted to respond to the most recent guest reviewer!**

**Anyways, there's going to be some skipping along, and I'm going to try and keep it chronological with big events for the most part. Chapter 8 is probably gonna have some big first year events before I get into summarizing the rest of the year, some scenes from Year Two, and then more summary until I can reach the 4/5th year or so, as that's when the relationships and character development can really happen. I'm not too keen on writing about 11 year olds after all, haha!**

**Anyways! Review response! I'm super sorry if you didn't want me to respond on the fanfic, but I can't send you a PM if you review as a guest!**

**Aubrey Blair: Thank you so much, both for the compliments and the realization that there are a few people who actually care about this fic! I've always liked the old-gen way better than next-gen or even Harry's time period, though I don't know why. The lack of acceptance was actually something I didn't think about when starting the fic, but it was definitely an interesting thing when I realized what it meant for the plot. Lily and Remus are two of my favorite characters, really, so there was no way I would be writing a Marauder-era fic without featuring them! Like you, I'm kinda queer and not sure of myself, so I'm glad other people can relate to John the OC. It's kinda funny I started writing this before I realized I wasn't cis, because after a while I adopted the name for myself. Kinda feels like I'm writing fanfiction about myself, haha! I hope you end up reading this and realizing that I've updated, because it wouldn't have happened any time soon if you hadn't left your review! Thank you so much!**

**John the Author will return later to bring you various 'adventures' that may or may not include sickness, secrets, awkward puberty, and also Becky who I need to change the name and eye colour of because I realized she's completely ripping off the Becky from the webcomic Dumbing of Age and I feel like a dumb! Peace, yo!**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N - 'Becky's name has been changed to Alison! Her nickname is Allie, and her eye colour is now brown. I'm probably not going to go back and edit previous mentions of her, so I'm telling you now.**

* * *

The first snow of the winter season was unbelievably beautiful. John had woken up early on the weekend, for whatever reason, and the sight of the sun rising over the sparkling landscape was enough to take his breath away. As it was early, no footprints disturbed the snow, and John noticed icicles had formed on the windows. His grin spread across his face and he quickly grabbed clothes to change into before jumping back onto his bed and drawing the curtains closed around him. After getting dressed, he practically ran out of the room, tripping over his robes as he did so. It was his first snow at Hogwarts, and he was excited as could be! His parents had never let him play in the snow, so he was more than ready to take advantage of their absence.

He found it interesting to note that the usually early-rising Remus Lupin was still in bed, but thought nothing of it. It was more his interest to rush up to wake his dear friend Lily Evans. John made it as far as the bottom step leading to the girl's dormitories before they morphed into a slide. Blinking, he fell directly onto his rump. It took him a moment to wonder why he couldn't go up before he remembered that boys couldn't go to the girl's dormitories. A giggle escaped his lips and soon he was laughing harder than necessary before picking himself up off the ground. His mouth ended with a satisfied grin before he sat in one of the large armchairs by the fire. Eventually, Lily came downstairs, and John practically tackled her in a hug. The redhead was more than a little taller than him, however, and she merely patted his back as he lost his balance.

"Lily! Snow!"

"John! I know!" They jumped around like a couple of children, which they technically were, before John realized something.

"Oh, I need to get my gloves, I'll be right back."

Lily nodded, and her friend ran back up the stairs to the boys dormitories. He opened his trunk with such force that he was surprised it didn't break. After rummaging around, he found the gloves, putting them on before slamming the trunk. Accidentally, of course. A groan came from Remus's bed and John couldn't help but check up on him. It wasn't every day that the bookworm slept in, and John began to wonder if he had gotten sick in his absence. Remus had only returned to them last night, as he had spent some time back home tending to his sick mother. Drawing the curtain back, John saw that he did look kind of sick. He put his hand on the brunette's forehead, noting that his face was flushed and sweating. John frowned, as he felt feverish. Remus opened his eyes, blinking at him in mild confusion.

"I'll be right back." John went downstairs to see Lily waiting for him.

"What took you so long?"

"I think Remus is sick. I'm going to stay inside and take care of him."

"But you were so excited for the snow! Don't tell me you're going to miss the first snow because of him." Lily pouted.

"Well, what can I say? I'm gay. Besides, I'm sure Severus will be glad to have you all to himself today."

"Oh, fine. I'll go get breakfast and look for him there. Take care." The redhead leaned down to kiss him on the cheek before leaving the common room.

John was left with a smile on his face. Lily was like a big sister to him, though he didn't know whether or not she was actually older or younger. He momentarily forgot what he was doing before leaving as well. He went in the opposite direction of her, making his way to the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey would likely be awake by then, and he quickly opened the door. The mediwitch spotted him immediately, and he told her that Remus had a fever. She had an odd look of understanding that he didn't understand, but gave him a potion, telling him to make sure the other boy drank all of it. It didn't look like the usual flu potion, and smelt somewhat like Monkshood. He didn't question it, and Madame Pomfrey told him to keep Remus fed and watered. After the odd comparison of Remus to plant life, John nodded, leaving the Hospital Wing.

His next stop was to find the kitchens. He remembered it being somewhere near the dungeons, but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember where. After wandering for longer than he had liked, he bumped into a suspicious looking Sirius. A quick question resulted in a much longer conversation than he wanted, and he put a stop to it after the subject of flying lions came up. John eventually managed to get the information he was looking for, and he found the kitchens with little difficulty. Tickling a pear, he made his way into the kitchens to be greeted by one of many house elves. He explained that his friend was sick, and the elves began to prepare a dish for him while he grabbed a bit of toast and the chocolate-hazelnut spread that he noted Remus to be fond of. John found himself leaving while balancing soup, tea, water, and various other things to feed and water sick people with in his arms.

Surprisingly, he managed to make his way back to Gryffindor common room with little difficulty. It suddenly occurred to him that the trip he had just made would have been much easier if he had a tray, and he groaned. Ahh, if only his magic were at the level required to conjure such a simple item. He decided to swallow his pride and ask a kind upperclassman to do it for him, memorizing the spell required. A glance down at his watch made him frown. He had, in fact, taken over an hour to find everything he needed. Readying an apology, he walked up to the first year boy's dormitory. The curtains around Remus's bed were drawn tight, and John decided to put the tray on the table before pulling them back. Remus was on his side, facing away from the other brunette, and John couldn't tell whether he was sleeping or not.

"Sorry I took so long. I couldn't find the kitchens."

Remus turned over to face him, and John looked away somewhat sheepishly before picking the tray up. The sick boy sat himself up, surprised to find a tray of food placed on his lap. He looked up at John, who nervously began to explain that he went to Madame Pomfrey before searching for the kitchens to find him breakfast. Remus began to eat, and John continued speaking, rambling on about how he was pleasantly surprised to find the kitchen full of house elves. He had been planning on cooking the meal himself, though it likely wouldn't have tasted as good had he done so. His parents never let him near the stove in his own house, so he would have certainly ended up ruining it. John kept talking without interruption, as Remus didn't have anything to say. He didn't stop until he realized Remus had finished his meal and was looking out the window. After a moment of appreciation for Remus's appearance, the sick boy spoke.

"It's snowing."

"Yeah. I was going to go outside and play, actually. My mum never let me play in the snow because she didn't want me getting sick." He frowned slightly, but quickly perked up. "Anyways, that's not important. You're sick and someone needs to take care of you!" John smiled at the other.

"... I'll be fine. You don't need to take care of me." Before John could protest, Remus kept talking. "I get sick all the time, I'm used to it. I appreciate you getting breakfast for me, but I don't need you to waste your time when you could be having fun. If it gets bad I can just go back to the Hospital Wing." He stated, picking up the potion and sniffing it. His face twisted into an unfortunate grimace.

"I don't mind staying."

"John-"

"No, really! I want to take care of you. I can read to you, we can play games… I have this really fun muggle board game I brought from home, actually! It's called Monopoly, but I guess it's more fun with lots of people… Ooh, we can play Battleship! I used to play it all the time with Allie. Her parents got us the plastic board game version, and I brought it with me so we don't have to use paper. Actually, I don't have any paper anyways, and it doesn't seem like it'd be any fun with quills and parchment. If you don't wanna play Battleship or read, I guess we can do homework. I still have that Charms essay I haven't gotten around to. It's not due for a while, but I'd rather get it done early so I can have lots of free time." He almost kept speaking, but Remus had started to laugh. "What?" John blushed, not sure what was so funny.

"Has anyone told you that you talk a lot?"

"I… Lily and Allie always tell me I talk a lot when I'm nervous. Not that I'm nervous right now! I just, I don't know, you weren't saying anything so I had to fill the silence."

"You were talking a lot, I didn't want to interrupt. Took me a while to realize you weren't going to stop." John scratched the back of his head, but he was satisfied that Remus seemed to be in a good mood.

"Sorry."

"How do you play Battleship?" Remus asked, ignoring John's apology before drinking his potion. He gagged, quickly flushing the foul liquid down with his glass of water.

"Oh, it's really fun, let me go get it!"

Remus always found himself surprised that the other boy was so excited to pander to his wants. It was a bit strange, but it was nice to know he cared. He seemed strangely oblivious to the monthly 'sickness' caused by his Lycanthropy, and Remus hoped it stayed that way for a while. Him and John made it a habit of playing various muggle board games after the full moon, though the latter didn't know exactly why.

* * *

_**Word Count: 1,711**_

**Yeah, I know, it's short. This is the only event I really wanted to happen during their first year, though, so next chapter will likely include summer shenanigans with Allie and John. In second year, the Marauders discover that Remus is a werewolf, so that's gonna be a thing!**


	10. Chapter 9

It was interesting to note that Remus was actually quite easy to befriend. Despite his initially distant personality, stubborn pursual of his company made him much more friendly. Everyone in the first year boy's dorm of 1971-72, save for a certain Peter Pettigrew, was quite stubborn. By the end of the year, Remus had practically been forced to be friends with his dormmates. Not that he minded too much, but he tried to keep himself somewhat distant for fear of his… condition being revealed. The mischievous James Potter and Sirius Black seemed suspicious of him, but John and Pettigrew were somewhat oblivious. Luckily, the others had all summer to forget about his oddly routine disappearances. Remus returned home from his first year at Hogwarts in quite good spirits, spending his summer in a pleasantly anti-social bookworm sort of way. The sending of letters was his only form of communication with the outside world.

John, on the other hand, spent all of his summer outside of his house with Allie. His best friend had somehow managed to stay the same height as when he last saw her, and she was extremely curious as to how his schooling went. She was quite disappointed by her friend's vague answers until she somehow managed to get him to tell her all about his crush on Remus. He refused to talk about him any more after that, however, and Allie gave up on teasing him. Momentarily. The two of them proceeded to waste their time running around and playing silly games, and John almost forgot to do his summer work for Hogwarts, barely finishing before September 1st. He got his trunk together, more than ready for his second year at the famed school for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Unlike last year, John was early to arrive at King's Cross station. He had time to marvel at the beautiful train before making his way on board. Walking down the aisles, he peered into the different compartments, searching for his dear friend Lily. Sure, he was quite close to his dormmates, but he didn't have quite as much time to spend with the redhead. Seeing the blurry heads of red and black through the glass, he slid the door open. He was welcomed by a hug from the redhead, and a half-hearted wave from Severus. The Slytherin had managed to get over his grudge against the other boy, though this only happened after John told him he was gay. The trio proceeded to talk about how their summers went, though they mostly focussed on John and Lily's silly misadventures. A lurch told them the train had begun to move, and after a few moments, the compartment door slid open. John blinked in surprise.

"Allie?"

"John!" The short redhead nearly tackled her best friend. "I thought you were a muggle!"

"I thought _you _were a muggle!"

"This is John's not-girlfriend?" Lily asked, laughing slightly.

"That's me! You must be Lily and Severus! John mentioned you two in his letters." The brown eyed girl frowned. "Now that I think of it, I should have guessed he was a wizard. It's not like owl post is common for muggles."

Allie was quickly adopted into their small friend group, and began asking them about classes. John immediately jumped at the chance to talk about Transfiguration, but was silenced by Lily's claim that he was awful at it. He blushed, mumbling to himself. His childhood friend started saying something about irony, but shut up after a quick shake of the head and nod towards Severus. John may have confided in Lily about his gender identity, but he would certainly prefer less people to know he wasn't born male. As far as he was concerned, his redheaded friends, Professor McGonagall, and Headmaster Dumbledore were the only ones who needed to know. The conversation returned to its original topic, and John admitted that he was much better at potions and herbology. It wasn't that he was particularly bad at transfiguration! Lily confirmed that he was awful, causing him to pout. It wasn't his fault he felt bad about turning a rat into a cup! Severus spoke up, saying he should just stick to potions. Allie mentioned being interested in care of magical creatures, and the trio-turned-quartet continued speaking of various topics for the remainder of the train ride, only stopping when the food trolley appeared and to change into their robes.

Unfortunately, they had to separate from Allie, as she was a first year. John told her to look for the giant squid in the lake. Him and his two friends followed the larger crowd, securing a self-drawing carriage for themselves. The journey from Hogsmeade station to Hogwarts castle was cozy, and brought up the curious topic of why hogs seemed so important to British wizarding culture. Upon arriving at the Great Hall, Severus left for Slytherin table. John and Lily seated themselves as far away from James as possible. Unfortunately for him, that meant being quite far from Remus. He said nothing in hopes of avoiding teasing. Thankfully, it worked. Idle conversation twittered throughout the Hall as the awaited first years took the boats to the castle. Before anyone could die of boredom and become one of the multiple ghosts floating about the castle, Professor McGonagall walked through the large double doors, paying no mind to the enchanted ceiling the children behind her were staring at in awe. Not that John should've been thinking of them as children. They were only a year younger than him, and Allie was among them. The two exchanged smiles after making eye contact, and the Sorting Ceremony commenced.

It was quite interesting to be an onlooker to the ceremony he had participated in only the previous year. Allie seemed quite excited, and John idly began to wonder which class she would be in. Definitely not Slytherin. She wasn't the cunning sort. Ravenclaw didn't seem like a good fit for her either, as she wasn't one for pursuing knowledge. That left Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Both seemed like viable options, though he selfishly hoped she would join the house of the lion. He nearly missed it when her name was called.

"Whitney, Allison!" The short-haired girl trotted up to the stool with confidence, and John suddenly realized she was soaked from head to toe, but didn't seem to be shivering. It wasn't long before the hat called out-

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

She sent a sort of wave to her best friend and walked over to the yellow table. Her last name being so late in the alphabet meant that the Sorting had all but concluded, and after a short speech from the Headmaster, the feast appeared. Allie seemed unfazed by the sudden appearance of food, and John concluded that she was certainly not a muggleborn. He wondered if that was why he'd never seen the inside of her house? It would certainly explain several mysteries surrounding her. One very filling feast later, the students were dismissed, and John sleepily made his way to the second year Gryffindor boys dormitories. He and his four dormmates barely had the energy to wish each other sweet dreams before passing out, heads filled with dreams ranging from dancing food to armies of mice.

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_**Word Count: 1,207**_

**I really have no standard I'm holding myself to when I write this. The chapters are much shorter than the usual for Another Chance (my Fire Emblem Awakening fanfic). Anyways, here we have the start of second year! Allie is now attending Hogwarts, we're gonna do some skipping around, and I've basically no idea where I'm going with this fanfic. The only events I can think of are like... Remus being discovered as a Werewolf and the Marauders becoming Animagi. I'll probably spend more time on 5th and 7th year (6th is unimportant) and proceed to do after Hogwarts stuff? I'm tempted to write a sort of 'sequel' thing where he's an adult and gets to meet Harry and the others, idk. Tell me if I should? I can tell you he'd be Madame Pomfrey's assistant if that ends up being what I do!**


	11. Chapter 10

_**WARNING: **_**World War II is talked about near the end of the chapter.**** I don't go into too much detail, but I thought I should warn ****anybody who would be made uncomfortable. Remus explains the basic gist and the death count, but that is all. I've bolded the warning text around the short paragraph, so it should be easy to skip over.**

**I do not personally know anybody who would be offended or extremely uncomfortable by the paragraph, but I would rather be safe than sorry.**

* * *

The second day of school began with John marching over to his Hufflepuff friend and demanding to know why she was soaking wet the night before. Allie proceeded to explain that she was only doing what he told her to, as he had said to look for the giant squid. John stared at her before laughing, and Allie invited him to sit with her. He glanced around himself, noticing that nobody was sitting away from their house. A few curious strangers watched him, only looking away upon realizing they had been discovered. John shrugged, setting his bookbag down and settling himself down at the table of the badger. Allie offhandedly told him that the giant squid was really quite friendly, and she wondered how it ended up in a freshwater lake. Despite being a halfblooded witch raised in a magical home, she had insisted on receiving a proper muggle education. She would never want to be ignorant of such matters after all! But really, she just wanted to be able to say she had friends. If she hadn't gone to the local school nearby, she would have never met John, after all. Halfway through what John had deemed a pleasant breakfast, Lily approached with his schedule.

"Professor McGonagall asked me to deliver this to you because apparently you're too good for Gryffindor." She teased, a friendly smile on her face.

"Sorry. I wanted to be with Allie. I'm sure you fared well without me, though." He accepted the schedule, only glancing at the Gryffindor's first class before realizing they had Potions with Hufflepuff that morning. "Oh, we have class with- wait, never mind." He frowned. "I always forget you're younger than me."

"Drat. I do too." She crossed her arms. "It's because you're so short! If you just grew a bit taller I'm sure neither of us would forget."

"I'm not short!" He exclaimed as he stood up. Lily was at least three inches taller than him. "Other people are just tall!"

"Actually, I'm average height."

John ignored her, hugging Allie goodbye before leaving Lily behind. She giggled into her hand before ruffling the younger redhead's hair and grabbing the forgetful boy's bookbag. Lily waved at Severus before following her friend to the dungeons. It had been immediately clear in their first year that John, despite having a fascination with Transfiguration, was much better at Potions. Him and Lily were two of Professor Slughorn's favorite students (other than Severus), despite him being head of Slytherin. They had received invitations to join what the portly old man called the 'Slug Club', but John found himself displeased with the idea of it. He would much rather study on his own than spend his time in silly meetings, though he kept this opinion to himself as Lily claimed she would check it out. Upon catching up to her friend, Lily handed him his bookbag. He blushed when he realized he had forgotten it, and the two made their way to the potions classroom. Along the way there, the duo bumped into Alice, a second year Hufflepuff girl who John couldn't remember the surname of. He supposed it wasn't important.

The two girls began talking, and John decided to walk ahead, as he had spotted who he thought was possibly Remus Lupin. Maybe. Upon the confirmation that it was indeed Remus Lupin, John concluded that he had a talent for spotting people from behind and very far away. Or perhaps just Remus. The powers of a homosexual are mysterious and frightening at times. John greeted him, noting that the other seemed well-rested, a thing that seemed oddly rare for the scarred boy. Remus smiled in response, pointing out that his bag was open. Cursing to himself, John, quickly fixed the problem, and the two of them walked to Potions. They hadn't really spoken since the previous year, and he didn't really know what to say. After a moment, he decided to talk about class. One could usually strike up a conversation if they talked about classes.

"Excited for potions?"

"Hardly. I get a headache every time I walk into the room." John blinked at the information.

"That's odd. It doesn't smell too bad in there. Anything I can help with?"

"No, but thank you for the offer." He stated, shaking his head. "I was cursed with a sensitive nose and ears. Loud noises and strong smells hurt my head."

"That's rough, buddy." John patted him on the back. "Do you want to be partners?"

"What about Lily?"

"She has other friends. Plus she's walking with Alice right now. I doubt she'll miss me." Remus smiled at him.

"Well, if you so insist." John cheered to himself as they entered to potions room. He noticed Remus covering the lower half of his face slightly.

"If you want, I can look for a charm that blocks off your sense of smell for a while."

"I don't want to be any trouble."

"Nonsense!" John exclaimed as the two of them sat down. "I'd offer for any of my friends!" That was kind of a lie. The only other person he would probably bother to research for was Allie.

Other students began to file in, and the self-dubbed Marauders looked mildly surprised to see Remus sitting with John as opposed to the three of them. Lily was sitting nearby with Alice, and the two troublemakers of the group chose a table near the back. Poor Peter Pettigrew was left to fend for himself, and John felt a little bad for him. He was only thankful that they weren't in class with the Ravenclaws, as if he were forced to pair with one of them they likely wouldn't be impressed by his (lack of) potion making skills. John, as someone who liked to cook in his spare time, found potions to be very similar. Slughorn entered the room, and chatter slowly died out while he enchanted a piece of chalk to write on the board. He gave them simple instructions to make a simple potions as a simple review from the previous (simple) year. Fires lit themselves with the help of a wand wave and incantation, and soon potions were bubbling away. Remus looked sick, and John shot him a look of sympathy. He gave the other the task of cutting and crushing any ingredients so he wouldn't need to be directly above the fumes of the potion. Though he didn't say anything, it was clear the other was grateful.

By the end of potions class, John thought the potion looked decent for the most part, being the second best in the class. Remus looked somewhat surprised at the outcome of the potion, and John smiled at him. The taller boy didn't notice and he was quickly dragged off by James and Sirius. John shrugged, checking his schedule. It appeared they had Herbology with the Ravenclaws, and he smiled. Herbology was another subject he was unexpectedly good at. It was probably one of the only classes outside of Transfiguration he could answer questions with the same frequency as your average Ravenclaw. Him and Remus walked to class together, the other Marauders talking excitably about whatever mischief they planned on causing.

The taller boy was certainly better with Herbology than he was with Potions, from what John could remember. He wondered what he wanted to be when he grew up? It was likely the other hadn't even begun to ponder such matters, but it was practically all John could think of. He couldn't wait to grow up and go out in the world. Sure, he had only been alive for measly 12 years, but he was quite impatient. A large part of him had settled on the idea of becoming a Healer of some sort, as his parents were doctors. True, he had been avoiding his parents in recent years due to circumstances regarding his gender that they didn't know about, but he still looked up to them. Letting his mind wander, he began to wonder what Remus's parents were like. John looked at the other boy, who was focussed on whatever it was Professor Sprout was teaching. He suddenly realized he should be paying attention, and quickly focussed on their teacher. After a few minutes of intense dedication to her lecture, he realized it was all just boring first-day information. John almost immediately went back to wherever his train of thought was taking him.

Remus's face had scars on them, as did his hands. He never showed any more skin than that, regardless of the weather. It made John wonder. Where on earth did he get those scars? Was it his parents? Somehow, John doubted that. Remus had claimed (on several occasions) to be returning home to tend to his sick mother. It made John question his credibility, however. Saint Mungo's was open to all, after all, so why wouldn't his deathly ill mother simply go there? Unless Remus simply wished to spend as much time with her as possible before she passed away. It was a morbid and unlikely thought. John pushed it from his mind. He frowned, realizing everyone had secrets to keep. While he himself was perfectly fine flaunting his sexual orientation about, he wouldn't want his dormmates to question why he never changed in front of them. Upon further thought, he realized Remus never changed in front of them either, opting instead to either change in the washroom or behind the curtains of his bed. Looking at the scarred boy, however, John doubted it was for the same reasons.

Well, at the very least John could say he knew one thing about the boy, and that was the fact that he was strangely enchanting. He suspected that even if he hadn't been very much attracted males, he would still want to be around Remus. The taller (and probably older) male had a strangely dangerous aura about him and was quiet about his personal life. John tended to gravitate towards odd people. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize the bell had rung until he was being shaken by a certain Lupin. Blinking, he tried not to stare into the other's golden eyes before leaning down to pick his bag up and promptly toppling over. It was only mildly embarrassing. At least Remus found it amusing and helped him up with a smile. Times like these made John remember just how gay he really was. And that was quite a lot. Now that he thought about it, Remus was one of the few people who had actual proof that the shorter of the two fancied males. An interesting realization that he quickly pushed away before walking with him in the general direction of the Great Hall.

When he arrived, he found Allie sitting right in between James and Sirius at Gryffindor table. John blinked, brown eyes meeting green before a grin stretched across her pale face. Oh dear. She was going to shout something embarrassing, John could feel it in his bones. If there was a contest between a highly talented Seer and John Smith with the goal of predicting Allie's actions, John would win, hands down. He shook his head, though he knew there was nothing he could do to stop her. Dread filled him as he anticipated her shout. It took longer than expected, and Remus looked between them in confusion. John mildly wondered if it was a good thing to let Allie sit next to both Sirius and James, and she made her move as his thoughts wandered. She stood cupping her mouth with her hands.

"A LARGE QUANTITY OF HOMOSEXUALITY HAS AMASSED IN THE GREAT HALL! THIS HAS BEEN A PSA!" John raised an eyebrow as him and Remus got closer.

"You need to work on who you're trying to embarrass. I think Remus was more affected than me." The scarred boy had his head down as he seated himself. John thought he saw a splash of red on his cheeks.

"Who said it was directed at you?" Allie laughed as her friend sat across from her. "I said a bunch of it was all gathered. I'm here too." She shot a look at Sirius. "So is Sirius."

"Oh for the love of Merlin, I'm not gay! There's a big difference between being a homosexual and offhandedly mentioning that one guy is more attractive than his friend!" The grey-eyed individual looked frustrated. It seemed Allie had been bothering him for longer than he would have liked.

"You said you'd rather shag the Quidditch captain than his girlfriend."

"I am a twelve year old boy just now stepping into the glorious field of sexual awakening. You can't expect me to choose a side when I'm but a flowering bud of a man." His voice had the undertone of laughter, and John began to smile.

"Well, I'm sure Allie and I are gay enough to supply the school with homosexual magic for the rest of its days." John glanced at Remus who had his head in a book.

Before he could say anything, Severus and Lily walked in. John noted that the darker boy had a smile on his face, something that usually only ever happened with Lily. Upon seeing them, James and Sirius frowned. Mostly James. Well, they frowned almost equally, but James frowned a tiny bit more. John shrugged. His and Lily's green eyes met, and John noted that her's were a much prettier shade. She glanced at his company, sending him an apologetic smile before sitting down quite far from them. James hadn't exactly made the best first impression on her and Severus. Sirius had been supporting James's at that time, and with their strong friendship, both boys ended up on Lily's bad side. This resulted in John having to choose who to eat with every day. At least Lily was popular. She couldn't be missing him too much with all of her other friends, though the same couldn't be said for John.

"I can't believe she spends so much time with him." James stated, sending a glare at Severus.

"Honestly. I bet the bloke's getting into all sorts of Dark Arts." Sirius agreed. Remus stayed silent while Allie and John frowned.

"Have you even talked to the guy? It's so sad, he barely has any friends. Must be hard for him." Allie stated, not one to judge someone without getting to know them.

"Almost none of the Slytherins talk to him because he's friends with Lily. Plus, Lily mentioned he lives near her, but he's in a pretty poor neighborhood. He never let her go over to his house." John stated, wanting to defend the boy. It wasn't that he was particularly good friends with Severus, he just wanted to defend Lily's best friend.

"Well, I don't think he deserves friends. He's just like all the other Slytherins; slimy and nasty. I'm surprised the grease doesn't drip off of his face and into those potions!" John decided there was no point in arguing with James. Allie didn't share his sentiment.

"You don't even know him!"

"You don't either!"

"Prefect Truman was right, all of you Gryffindors are the same! Prejudiced and- and rude! You're all just a bunch of bullies who don't even care about what kind of person your victim is at heart!" John winced. It was clear Allie was working herself up, but he could see she was right, for the most part.

"Hey, we're not bullies! What's wrong with having a little fun every now and then?" Sirius questioned, confused as to why she was so emotional.

"Of course you don't think you're bullies! Bullies never think they're bullies! Honestly, all of you lot treat Slytherin house like some breeding ground for dark wizards."

"You-know-who is a Slytherin!" Allie slammed her hands on the table as she stood up, calling more attention to the arguing trio.

"So is Professor Slughorn! So is Merlin, for crying out loud! The greatest wizard of all time was a Slytherin, so you have no right to say everyone is Slytherin is a bad person!"

"Allie-"

"Not now, John! I'm angry!"

"Allie!" John raised his voice. "You're causing a scene!" The first-year looked around, seeing the entire Great Hall staring at her. Slughorn cleared his throat uncomfortably. This only seemed to harden her resolve.

"If all of you want to be stubborn, I'm going to prove to you that not all Slytherins are Dark Lords in the making."

Allie picked up her bag, storming away from Gryffindor table to join the sea of green. People around her greeted her as pleasantly as they could, some patting her on the back in some form of praise. John put his face in his hands and sighed. He hated it when she got worked up like that. It barely ever happened, but when it did he felt awful and insensitive about it. He probably didn't make her feel any better, and he had done nothing to help her calm down before the situation escalated. The Great Hall slowly returned to its usual chatter, though the atmosphere was tense and somewhat awkward. After a large stretch of silence, Sirius spoke, looking at John.

"What happened?"

"She… her father is…" John frowned, sighing. "I-I know it's not my place to tell you, but I know she's never going to open up to you lot. She never knew her birth father, though. He… He wasn't a good person. Allie wasn't supposed to… She wasn't planned. At the time, her mum was having a lot of trouble raising her, even though she was a witch. Nobody could watch her while she was at work, so she had to balance a lot of things. It was like that for about five years. That was around the time I met her. Later, her mum started seeing a guy. This guy was German, and… Do any of you know about World War II?" Remus shivered, and he decided to provide details for their pureblooded friends.

**(Remus's brief overview begins)**

"World War II happened at the same time as the war with Grindelwald. An insane man called Adolf Hitler wanted the world to be what he thought was 'pure'. He led the Nazi party, which was largely composed of German men, and they sent anybody they thought to be 'impure' to terrible places called concentrations camps. Sixty million people died over the course of six years. That was three percent of the entire world's population." The two purebloods paled at that information. "I'm not going to talk about it more. We're eating." Remus stated, taking a bite out of a rather delectable sandwich. John continued his story.

**(Remus's brief overview ends)**

"The Nazi party's primary targets were the Jews. Allie and I grew up in a very Jewish town, so as you can imagine, the people living there hated the ones who caused their people so much pain and genocide for no reason. Allie's mum's boyfriend couldn't even get a job because everyone labelled him as a Nazi upon seeing he was German. He never even lived in Germany, though. Him and Allie were really close, so…" John poked at his food. "Whenever she sees that kind of prejudice she gets mad. She hates that one person's actions can change how an entire people is viewed." He finished, not having much of an appetite as he pushed his plate away.

"... I feel like an arse." James muttered.

"I just… I always hated Slytherin house because of my family. I guess I never thought that anyone could be different." Sirius admitted.

The rest of lunch was a quiet affair for the group, and John wondered how long it would take for them to revert to their old ways.

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_**Word Count: 3,291**_

**That was... way longer than it was originally going to be! It took a darker turn towards the end, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I fleshed out Allie's character some more, and I've started to like her a lot more than I did previously. I never disliked her, but she didn't seem very relevant until now. ****We got some good character development and a lot of John's whole "I have no idea how to focus in class especially on the first day" ****dealio, so I hope you enjoyed that.**

**I'd also like to note that I changed the description a bit. This fic isn't purely Remus/OC. There's kind of going to be a John/Remus/Sirius love triangle bc apparently everyone want to shag the werewolf. Remus dates both of them on separate occasions, though. Just saying.**

**Response to the Guest: I've actually decided to have him meet Harry in the sequel (which is probably going to be called "John Smith and Those Crazy Teens Who Can't Stop Hurting Themselves" or something along those lines.). I'm probably going to have him and Remus get together after Sirius gets sent to Azkaban, because I'm a huge WolfStar shipper and Remus will probably be dating Sirius at some point. Thank you so much for your review, it really means a lot to me and it was what motivated me to type out the rest of this chapter!**

**Love you guys, see you next chapter!**


	12. Chapter 11

The incident during lunch resulted in Allie refusing to talk to either of John's pureblooded friends, and any time someone looked for Allie, they were quite likely to find her with a group of Slytherins. She had taken to eating all of her meals at the table of serpents, and anybody who looked at her face could tell she was actually having a good time. John hadn't been able to talk to her for quite some time, and he wondered if she was avoiding him. He certainly hoped not. Lily confronted him about the situation, and he gave her much the same explanation he had given his dormmates. Over a month had passed, and he still hadn't been able to speak to his friend. The only thing he could say he was happy about was that she seemed to have made friends with Severus and Lily. Other than worrying over his friend, John spent most of the time around the Marauders.

Him and Remus had realized that they worked incredibly well together when it came to classes, so they nearly always sat beside each other. John had, after multiple trips to the library and more than a little bit of help from Lily, found a spell to help Remus block his senses for around an hour. His performance in potions noticeably improved, and John felt satisfied by the fact. It was Sunday, October 22nd when Remus disappeared for the second time since the school year started. When John walked into the second year boy's dormitory that night, he noticed James, Sirius, and Peter all sitting on the floor. They were talking in hushed tones, and John tilted his head in confusion. Upon hearing the door open, the three looked to the door, making a space on the floor for John to sit in the circle. He did so, confused as to what was going on. James began to speak.

"Don't you think it's the slightest bit suspicious that Remus always leaves for about three days every month?"

"I thought he was visiting his mum?" John responded, not really sure what he was getting at.

"Every month though? His mum can't be that sick. We think he's hiding something."

"Well, isn't everyone hiding something? Nobody's without secrets." John crossed his arms, slouching a bit. He wouldn't want the group to know about his secret.

"I don't have anything to hide." James stated, and Sirius glared at him.

"Yeah, well not everyone's got a lovely rich family who praises everything he does." John wondered what that was about? James pressed on.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever though. Over the summer I was thinking about Remus a lot." John was too, but obviously for different reasons. "Where did he get those scars?"

"Maybe he's accident prone."

"Why are his eyes golden?"

"Genetics? It's not like we've seen his parents before."

"Why is he always tired?"

"Insomnia is a thing."

"Why hasn't he mentioned anything about what his mum is sick with?"

"That's probably kind of personal."

"Yeah, well why does he always change when we're not there?"

"I never change in front of you guys either. Not everyone is as comfortable with their bodies as you two." John frowned at James and Sirius. All of their suspicions had easy answers, so he didn't know why they were so focused on it. Sirius looked out the window and his eyes widened.

"When did he disappear last month?" The grey-eyed boy asked.

"Why would any of us remember that?"

"He disappeared on the 23rd." John mumbled.

"Does anyone remember anything about last year?"

"He was missing on New Year's Eve, and December 2nd. And on the 4th of October." John frowned. "I can't remember any more."

"... Why the hell d'you remember any of those?" James looked at him weirdly, and John blushed.

"I have a perfectly good reason but I'm not going to tell you." He wondered if the others forgot that he was gay?

"Someone get me a lunar calendar, I lost mine." Sirius had looked through his bookbag and was rummaging through his trunk.

"H-here…" Peter handed it to him, and the grey eyed boy began flipping through it.

"What do October 4th, December 2nd, New Year's Eve, September 23rd, and October 22nd have in common?" Sirius asked them, though it seemed he already knew the answer because his eyes were wide.

"They just sound like random days to me, mate." James looked frustrated, and glanced out the window. His eyes widened as well, and John felt out of the loop. Looking out the window only revealed a rather pretty sky with a very full moon. "Wait…"

"On every single one of those nights…"

"There's been a full moon!" James exclaimed. Peter gasped.

"Y-you don't mean he's a…"

"I think he must be. My sorry excuse for a mother always screamed about them being monsters with golden eyes and scars all over. I don't know how I didn't notice before!" Sirius smacked himself on the head.

"Sorry, what is it all of you are freaking out about?" James looked at him weirdly before he seemed to realize something.

"Right, you're a muggleborn." John pouted. What did that have to do with anything?"

"He's a werewolf." Sirius supplied.

"That's kind of cool. I've read books about them. Though, they were muggle books, so they probably weren't accurate…"

"That's not cool, that's terrifying!" Peter nearly shouted.

"We've been sleeping in the same room as him!"

"Well, it's not like he's ever attacked us before… I don't see what the big deal is…"

"Guys, John is right. He hasn't done anything to hurt us." Sirius stated.

"... Why are werewolves covered in scars?"

"I heard the transformation is something awful, and the wolf wants to kill, but if there's no humans around the only thing it can hurt is itself." John shuddered.

"Isn't there anything we can do? Remus is our friend, he doesn't deserve to suffer like that every month."

"Well…" James and Sirius were deep in thought when Peter spoke up. "I heard a story about a werewolf making friends with a bunch of forest creatures…"

"Is there any way we can turn into animals somehow?" John asked, looking at the two purebloods in the room.

"Yeah, actually. It's really hard though. And illegal if we don't get permission."

"I think we should go for it." Sirius stated, a grin on his face.

"What, you're not suggesting we actually become Animagi?" Peter's eyebrows raised.

"Of course that's what I'm saying! Can you imagine how cool it would be? What do you think we'd become? Maybe I could be a lion!" Sirius pretended to roar, and John laughed.

"How do you know what animal you are? Do you get to choose?" Sirius frowned at that.

"I don't know. It's not like I spend all my time reading about Animagi."

"Well, that's what I'm going to be doing from now on." John stated.

"I dunno if you lot have realized, but I'm a genius at transfiguration. If you need any help with this business, well, don't be shy to ask for help."

"Oh, shut it, Potter." John glared at him, somewhat jealous of his proficiency in the subject.

James laughed, and the five of them retreated to their beds for the night. John found himself unable to sleep. They didn't even really have solid proof that Remus was a werewolf, but it seemed like an accurate assumption. He wondered where Remus went to transform? It wasn't as if he were in the hospital wing, after all. A sigh escaped his lips as he turned over in bed. Remus had to be safely away from humans, otherwise the Headmaster wouldn't let him attend Hogwarts. He remembered Dumbledore warning everyone about the Whomping Willow, and it occurred to him that the tree hadn't been there before his first year. Was it connected? He'd have to investigate. And hopefully not get killed.

John groaned, sitting up. He just couldn't fall asleep! The brunette stood up, putting his shoes on. As he left the dorm room, he drew his robes tightly around him. He hoped it hadn't gotten too cold, or that his robes would be warm enough to fight off the chill. He walked through the dark halls carefully, not daring to light his wand. With only one dangerous run-in with a ghost, John made his way out onto the castle grounds, vaguely wandering towards the Great Lake. Kneeling down by the water, he wondered if the squid was awake. Dipping his hand under the surface proved that it was actually quite cold, and he quickly retrieved the appendage. He stood up once more, circling the lake as he let his thoughts wander. Off in the distance, he thought he heard a howl. John frowned, assuming it was Remus. It probably was. He sounded so sad, and John couldn't help but feel the same. This only made him firm up his resolve to become an Animagus, though he knew it would be difficult and highly illegal. Several other howls came from the Forbidden Forest, surprising John. He would have to look into that. Or maybe ask Lily to do so.

Looking down at his feet, he shivered, feeling the cold metal of his watch on his wrist. He checked the time, and realized he had only been outside for an hour. John groaned, still not feeling tired despite the fact that it was past midnight. He looked up at the sky. It was a clear night, and he noticed the stars shining dully in comparison to the bright glow of the moon. Sighing, John turned to face the Whomping Willow. He was about ninety-four percent certain it had something to do with Remus, but he didn't know what. He thought he saw an odd knot in the roots, though he couldn't be sure due to the lighting. Thoughts went through his head as he sat down on a large, convenient rock. His robes were drawn tightly around him and a sneeze pierced the sounds of the night. It probably wasn't wise for him to be sitting outside on a cold October night, but he was quite glad that there was no snow. He wished he had brought his wand with him. Then could have casted a warming charm on him.

Part of him was screaming to go back inside, but the other told him to stay put and see if anything happened. John decided he was too cold to stay there like that, and he hopped down from the rock. Carefully making his way inside, he decided to walk down to the kitchens, trying to ignore the burning sensation he felt in his hands from the quick change in temperature. Part of him wondered how he hadn't encountered any teachers. He then saw who he thought was Professor McGonagall and quickly ran in the opposite direction. A groan nearly escaped his lips when he remembered being quiet was the best way to avoid attention, and he proceeded to let out a silent sigh instead. He somehow managed to make his way to the kitchens without further difficulty, and upon tickling the pear he was granted access to an empty room.

John wondered why he thought the house elves would be there at that time of night before shrugging. He proceeded to make his way to the ingredients and found himself trying to cook his father's famous apple pie. It was funny to think that, while she was gifted in potion brewing, his mother couldn't cook to save her life. Thoughts of home flooded his thoughts, but he quickly shook his head. The last time he spoke with his mother she tried to take him dress shopping. It wasn't that he didn't love his mother, but she could be more than a little overbearing with gender roles. He finished mixing the batter as this thought crossed through his head, and decided to let himself get lost in his thoughts as he prepared the pie.

His reunion with his parents upon arriving home for the summer was full of shouts about 'our dear baby girl Melanie' returning to them at last. He hadn't spent any of the holiday breaks with them, and they questioned him thoroughly. Not knowing what to say, he faked being sick, and escaped the house after they thought he was asleep in his bed. Somehow, he managed to spend most of his vacation with Allie in the woods by her house. He felt a little guilty for ignoring his parents like that, but he didn't really know how to deal with them. Pushing his bangs out of his eyes, he recalled what happened the first time he cut his hair.

It had been on the 12th day of July, 1967. He had turned seven whole years old and decided to celebrate by choppily cutting his hair with scissors. His mother, mortified, rushed him over to Allie's adoptive father immediately. The German man had been a barber before he moved to that town, and John's mother had demanded that he fix her 'daughter's' hair. He accepted quite easily after she said she would pay for it, and he asked John what kind of hair he wanted. His immediate answer was simply 'boy hair' and Allie's father didn't question it. From that point on, he went to his best friend's dad for any haircut he needed. It had been an interesting moment and he wasn't sure whether it was a happy memory or not. John put the pie in the brick oven, hoping he hadn't used to much honey. In the meantime, he looked for something to snack on, wondering why he was baking a pie.

Allie had obviously been the first one he came out to as male. She didn't seem very surprised, and that was that. The redhead was one of the most accepting people John knew, and had immediately started using the proper pronouns despite him not having chosen a name for himself. He hadn't decided on that until he was almost eleven years old. John told Allie to call him by his chosen name the day he got his Hogwarts letter, though he hadn't told her about the letter. He wasn't sure what he would do without her, and he sighed. The two of them hadn't spoken in over a month, and he missed her terribly. It was his fault for not trying harder, he decided, and he remembered that Allie's favorite dish John's father ever made was in fact the very pie he was baking. Perhaps he could reconcile with her the next day.

A smile on his face at that point, John decided to look around for anything else he cared to cook with, and found that really, he didn't want anything. Except perhaps hot chocolate. His fingers had stopped burning a long time ago, but the weather still made him crave the delightful treat. Letting the pie cook, he rummaged around before discovering there was no hot chocolate mix. He realized he would have to make it from scratch, and proceeded to gather chocolate and milk amongst other things. As he sipped the drink, he checked his watch, seeing that it would start getting light out soon. The pie had finished, and it was sitting on one of the multiple tables. He really had no idea what to do with it, and before he had to think too hard, the first house elf appeared. The short creature looked quite surprised to see one of the students there so early, and John quickly asked if they could take the pie to the first year Hufflepuff girl's dormitory with a note he quickly scribbled out. They nodded without question and took the pie.

John left the kitchen soon after, and wandered back out to the grounds. He found his place on the rock again and looked back to the Whomping Willow. Weren't those rare? It was an odd thing to put on school grounds, even if it was to protect the students from a werewolf. Headmaster Dumbledore could have just as easily had a hidden passageway without planting a violent tree. He tensed at the sound of the large castle doors opening. Whipping his head around, he saw the form of Madame Pomfrey holding her glowing wand in front of her. Keeping out of her range, John saw her cast some sort of stunning spell at the tree before crawling down in a gap he hadn't noticed before. Frowning, he stepped down from his rock, hiding behind it as he watched. The Mediwitch returned a few minutes later, with someone stumbling about in front of her. Upon further inspection, he realized it was Remus. His friend looked awful, and John frowned, following the two into the castle from a distance.

Now that it was light out, John was sure he couldn't be in danger of being caught after curfew, but he still didn't want to be discovered. He followed them to the Hospital Wing, where Madame Pomfrey led the werewolf to a bed near her office. The curtains were drawn around his bed, and John just stood there until she finished. He was beginning to feel tired. After what felt like another hour but was likely only a few minutes, the woman came back into view. She sighed, and was about to return to her office when John spoke up.

"Madame Pomfrey?" The healer's eyebrows shot up.

"Mr. Smith! What on earth are you doing here at this hour?"

"I… I saw you and Remus come out from the Willow." As she tried to come up with an explanation, John continued. "I figured out he was a werewolf last night and I couldn't sleep." He looked down at his feet. "I've been worried." Her eyes softened, and she decided not to deny that Remus was inflicted with Lycanthropy. He needed a friend he could talk to about such things.

"I'm sorry, dear. Does he know you know?" John shook his head, rubbing his left eye.

"I don't think he'd want me to know." He looked at the curtains.

"You're not… you're not scared of him, are you? He's really such a sweet boy. He didn't deserve for this to happen to him."

"I have no reason to be scared of him. I've roomed with him for a whole year without incident, and he's not dangerous unless it's a full moon." That seemed to be the right answer, as a smile spread across the woman's tired face.

"You can see him if you'd like. He's more than a little banged up from last night, but his transformation wasn't as bad as usual this time around. I can only hope it's because he has wonderful friends like you who care about him."

John smiled at her in thanks and followed her behind the curtain. She conjured up a chair and left the two boys alone. John frowned as he looked at the other. Remus looked exhausted. He had fresh scars on him and dark circles under his eyes, and John could see him trembling slightly. Frowning, he realized there was nothing he could do. He sat down in the chair by his bedside and brushed a stray lock of hair out of the other's face. Becoming an Animagus sounded more and more appealing, necessary even, as time went on. The lack of sleep finally began to catch up to him, and before he knew it, John was falling asleep.

* * *

_**Word Count: 3,252**_

**Trust me, I have no idea where my inspiration has come from recently. John gets lost in his thoughts a lot, I've discovered. Anyways, you can imagine that several people will be concerned by John's disappearance, and when Remus wakes up he's probably going to panic.**


	13. Chapter 12

The next day at Hogwarts, in the second year Gryffindor boy's dormitory, two brunettes seemed to be missing. It was no surprise that a certain Lupin boy wasn't back from wherever it was that he went on full moons, but John was notorious for waking everyone (except Remus) up early on days he was up before them. The Marauders had no explanation, and got ready for the day while hoping they would find John at breakfast. Unfortunately, breakfast only revealed that Allie was suddenly sitting at Gryffindor table and sharing a pie with Lily. The younger redhead excitedly waved the three over, and they exchanged looks. Had she forgotten that she was angry with them? Lily looked strangely offended that James was joining them, but she didn't move from her spot. Not even when he sat right beside her. Not even when he sent an awful pickup line at her. After being ignored, James saw that she politely greeted Peter and glared at Sirius. The other pureblood shrugged, sitting beside Allie as Peter sat on Lily's other side.

"John baked this pie for me and had a house-elf send it to my dorm room. It's his father's own special reci-pie!" Allie exclaimed as Lily, who was sitting across from her, groaned.

"Did you have to repeat that?"

"Good humor mustn't be wasted! It's the vow of a Marauder!"

"Allie, we never said you were a Marauder." Sirius said bluntly, slurring his words slightly as he grabbed a cup of what looked like coffee. He was by no means a morning person.

"She can be a Marauder if she wants." James stated as he took a violent bite out of a waffle.

"Changing the subject, where's John? I wanted to thank him. I feel kind of bad for ignoring him recently."

"You were ignoring the lot of us. I'm sure he didn't take it personally." The bespectacled boy choked after speaking, which Lily ignored. He hurriedly drank a glass of what seemed to be some sort of not-cow milk as Sirius laughed at him. James looked at the fake milk in discomfort after he stopped choking.

"As John's best friend, I think I know more about what he would take personally than you would. I bet you don't even know who he fancies!" Allie stated playfully.

"John fancies someone?" Sirius was more than a little shocked. "Girly little John _fancies _someone?"

"Don't call him that!" Both redheads exclaimed at the same time. It was surprising that they weren't related.

"Why not?" James raised a brow. "He looks more like a girl than he does a boy. Plus, his name on everything was Melanie."

"You're right, actually. Why do we even call him John?" Sirius looked confused, and Allie exchanged a look with Lily. This was not the direction they wanted the conversation to get into.

"Don't look into things people wouldn't want to talk about. I've known John for more than half of my life, so don't you _dare _say anything about that to him or I will personally gut you before throwing you to the wolves." James and Sirius gulped at the first year's threats. Hufflepuffs were loyal to a fault and they had no doubt that she would follow through.

"Anyways, it's clear you don't know who he fancies. It's kind of sad that you wouldn't know, honestly. I bet the Sorting Hat didn't consider you as a Ravenclaw for more than half a second."

"How would we know who he fancies? It's not like he ever looks at any of the girls like that." Allie snorted at James's response.

"Who on earth said he was into girls?"

"He's said it himself that he's gay." Peter spoke up, and Lily jumped a little. She had almost forgotten he was there.

"... Oh." James shuddered.

"Honestly, Potter, you just assume anyone who's into blokes fancies you. Why on earth anybody would even look at you eludes me." Lily huffed.

"She's right, mate. Anyone with half a brain would know I'm the proper choice."

"What? No way, my hair's way better!"

"As if! Your hair is just asking for owls to have babies in it."

"John wouldn't fancy either of you in a million years." Allie stated bluntly. "You lot are probably never going to guess because your skulls are too thick to think past your own supposedly good looks."

"Woah, you cannot say we're unattractive."

"Yes I can. I'm a lesbian." Allie shot Lily a look. "Lily on the other hand~"

"Allie, please don't look at me like that. It's making me uncomfortable."

"I'm joking!" She exclaimed in a manner that showed she really wasn't joking at all. It was Peter who decided to bring the conversation back to John, surprisingly.

"Doesn't he fancy Remus?" The other four blinked, staring at him.

"Remus? Who would fancy Remus? He's all books and secrets."

"I dunno, that's pretty attractive if you ask me." Sirius waggled his eyebrows. "Mysterious!"

"It's clear that Peter pays more attention to his friends than you two do." Lily sounded disappointed. "You probably never would have found out without him." The mousy boy flushed, not used to the indirect praise.

"That's what you think." James, on the other hand, looked offended by the insult.

"No, she's right. We wouldn't have. I never bothered to think about it."

"Did I already ask where he was?" Allie asked again.

"Yeah, we just forgot to answer. We don't know."

"Huh. What about Remus?"

Sirius and James exchanged a look before shrugging. Allie decided they were hiding something, but decided it didn't really matter at the time. She would later change her mind about that. Classes passed, but there was a distinct absence of John and Remus. With no idea where the two boys were, there was nowhere for the others to look. Hogwarts was, after all, quite a large place, and searching for someone could be more than a little difficult to do. They hoped the two would show up for lunch or, at the very least, dinner, but they were still missing. John and Remus's friends were quite concerned as they left to return to their common rooms for the night. It was surprising they never thought to check the Hospital Wing.

Neither of had woken til around midday, and it was actually Remus who opened his eyes first. He rubbed the sleep out of them before sitting up and stretching. It took him a very short moment to realize that he wasn't alone. Startled, he scooted away from the sleeping boy who looked as if he had somehow fallen out of the chair he was sitting on and managed to land part of his body on Remus's hospital bed. Remus couldn't see how that could be comfortable, and he vaguely registered that his own hand smelt of the other boy's hair. Pushing the thought out of his head, he began to worry. Why was John with him in the Hospital Wing? Had he found out about his condition? If so, why would he still be there? Was it possible that the other boy cared for him enough not to leave? A light blush rushed to his cheeks at the thought. He had been so sure nobody would accept him if they knew of his disease, yet there was John, sleeping at his bedside. It was possible that the other boy didn't know, but Remus found a part of him desperately hoping that John had found out and chosen to stay by his side.

After the werewolf sorted through his thoughts, John began to stir. He groaned slightly, stretching and feeling his bones pop. His first thought was that his arse was sore. Had he somehow managed to fall out of bed? His second thought was that he wasn't in his dormitory. He quickly realized that he had in fact fallen out of a chair and he had never made it out of the Hospital Wing. John was suddenly aware of golden eyes staring directly at him, and he realized that he had managed to fall asleep at his crush's bedside. A blush spread across his cheeks, and he quickly looked away, mumbling an apology. Remus blinked.

"How long have you been there?"

"Er…" John looked at Remus out of the corner of his eye. "Well, first I followed you and Madame Pomfrey from the Willow. She let me see you after she realized I kind of knew what was going on and I think I fell asleep because I had been worried all night after I figured out you were a werewolf and I was also really sad because you sounded really lonely when you howled and there was nothing I could do to help." John babbled, embarrassed, nervous, and not sure what to say. He was all over the place. "I also baked a pie earlier but I gave to Allie and I feel bad for not saving some for you but I don't even know if you like apple pie or honey and I can make you another one if you want. Or I can make something else for you! I-I'm sorry, you probably don't want me in here." He began to stand up to leave, but Remus weakly stopped him with a hand on his wrist.

"No, I'm just… I wasn't expecting you to still…" He frowned, trying to think of how to say what he wanted to say. "I didn't think anyone would still want to be friends with me after finding out what I am."

"I…" John gave up on holding back his blush. His cheeks were awfully warm. "You're still Remus. I just know a little more about you now. It's not like you've changed at all." John sat on the bed next to him.

He didn't receive a response, and when he looked over at Remus he saw the werewolf's eyes watering as he stared at the him. John, startled by the action, had no idea what to do, and frantically looked around. There weren't any tissues, and Remus started to sniffle, trying to wipe his eyes with his sleeves. He was a little embarrassed that he was crying, but he couldn't really help but feel emotional at that moment. John scooted closer, looking quite distressed as he held his hands up, trying to calm the crying werewolf down.

"P-please don't cry, I wasn't trying to upset you!"

Remus shook his head to convey that he wasn't upset, and John, out of options, wrapped his arms around him. Though he hadn't expected the action at all, Remus found himself burying his face in the other's chest, scarred hands clutching his shirt. He felt oddly small at that moment, despite being taller, and John did nothing but rub his back as he got whatever emotions he was feeling out of his system. As his sobs subsided, he realized that it was quite unwise to bottle up his feelings like he had been doing for the past year. He probably would have had a much more severe breakdown if he hadn't decided it was a good idea to start bawling his eyes out at that moment. Feeling embarrassed once more, he mumbled an apology, but didn't move much more than simply letting his arms drop down to loosely wrap around the other. John had joined him on the bed he found his new position to be very comfortable. Especially with the oddly fast yet relaxing heartbeat of the other boy. Remus yawned, feeling emotionally spent, tired, and hungry. His exhaustion overpowered the rest and he quickly found himself falling back asleep, using John as a living pillow.

John really had no idea what to do. Remus was like a cute animal and, as everyone knows, it is illegal to move when there is a cute animal on you. He settled for running a hand through Remus's somewhat tangled hair. It occurred to him that he probably should have been leaving to go to class, but he was quite against breaking the previously mentioned law. He spent his time detangling Remus's hair as gently as he could, and noticed a few grey strands. Seeing the grey made John frown. The transformations must be taxing, even for grown men, yet here was a young boy forced to carry the burden of the curse. If John ever met the beast who bit him, there would be hell to pay. The erratic, staccato beating of his heart slowed to a regular pattern as he relaxed. A few minutes later, Madame Pomfrey walked through the curtains. John noted that it was about a quarter past one.

"Did he wake up?" Was the first question out of her mouth, and John nodded before speaking.

"I said something that made him cry, but it wasn't because he was upset. He fell back asleep after he calmed down." He explained, and the Mediwitch smiled, her eyebrows raised in what looked to be amusement.

"And what, pray tell, did you say to him?"

"Well… All I said was that he was still the Remus I've known for over a year." Her smile softened.

"I think that was just what he needed to hear. Thank you, John." He was surprised by the familiarity.

"You're welcome, Madame Pomfrey."

"Please, dear, call me Poppy. I don't know what it is, but I've taken quite a liking to you." John smiled.

"I like you a lot too, Poppy." He giggled a little, and the woman's smile stretched across her face in response. She placed a bottle on the bedside table, conjuring up a cup as she spoke.

"When he wakes up again, make sure he drinks this, alright? I'll tell the professors to excuse your absence. Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Are there any books on healing magic I can read? I'm awfully curious." Poppy's eyes widened.

"I'm sure I can find you something, just a moment." She left, returning with a book. It was somewhat old and titled '_A Beginner's Guide to Healing'_. "They don't teach you these spells until much later, but I'm sure it's fine for you to study up on it."

"Wow!" John's eyes lit up as he took the book. "Thank you so much, Poppy!"

"I'll be in my office. If you need anything, give me a shout."

She rested a hand on his head before walking out, presumably to send a message to his professors and work on whatever it was healers worked on. John opened the book, smiling as the scent of old parchment filled his nostrils. He quickly became absorbed in his reading, learning about both the history and actual spellwork involved in the simpler healing spells. Several hours passed a he read, and he was nearing the end of the text when Poppy left her office. She approached the two boys, stating that she going to head down to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Would you like to stay here? I can bring something back for you." John nodded.

"It is illegal to move when there is a cute animal resting on you."

"You're quite right, young man." John smiled quite bit at being called a young man. "I'll bring food for both of you."

At that, she left. John finished the book and yawned a bit, stretching. He was careful not to stretch too much, as he didn't want to disturb the sleeping boy on him. It was incredible how relaxed John felt at the moment. He hadn't ever thought of the situation happening, and he truly felt quite comfortable. John ran his fingers through Remus's hair again, and he soon began to stir. He looked a little confused, and John spoke after he seemed to be aware enough to understand.

"Madame Pomfrey wanted to make sure you drank some sort of potion." Remus nodded and mumbled something quietly in response. John poured the potion into the cup Poppy had provided, and Remus drained the whole thing with a shudder before placing the cup back on the bedside table.

"You should be a healer." He mumbled, settling back down with head resting on John's shoulder. Remus was honestly too tired and sore from the previous night's transformation to even think about how clingy and intimate he was being. All he cared about was the fact that John was quite comfortable, warm, and wasn't against being used as a human pillow.

"I've actually been thinking about that a lot. My parents are doctors, and I've always wanted to help people like they do." Remus hummed.

"My mum is an insurance worker or something." He mumbled. John blinked in surprise, as this was the fire time Remus ever spoke of his parents. "My dad works in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"That sounds exciting." He hoped he didn't sound disinterested, as he honestly thought that would be an exciting job.

"I suppose so. I'm glad he works there, though… Otherwise I don't know what he would have done when his son became a disgusting monster."

"You're not a disgusting monster. You're Remus John Lupin." Remus looked up at him.

"... Thank you."

Before too long, Poppy returned with food for both of them. John noticed that the meat on Remus's plate was almost raw, and took note on that for if he ever had to cook for the werewolf. They ate quietly, conversing idly about this and that. Upon finishing their meals, they placed the dirty plates on the bedside table. John realized it must be quite late, and a quick look at his watch confirmed that it was indeed past curfew. As he made to get up and return to the dormitories, Remus's grip around him tightened. John slowly laid down beside him, a questioning look on his face. Remus shook his head.

"I don't want to be alone."

That was all the reason John needed to stay, and he found that he was quite content with being there for Remus, whether it be in a platonic way or otherwise.

* * *

_**Word Count: 3,010**_

**Did you know that Allie's "****reci-pie" pun came from the fact that I legitimately forgot how to spell recipe?**

**Also, I personally don't think Remus was OOC in this chapter, but what do you think? I've always imagined the transformations would take a lot out of him (especially in his younger years) and he'd be much more open knowing that someone would be there for him after finding out about his disease. Plus, the way I always pictured his recovery would be a few days of nothing but sleep, food, and potions, as he has to recover his strength.**

**I feel that this chapter was important to character development but also I just wanted to write some gay stuff.**


	14. Chapter 13

The next day, John woke up with the discovery that him and Remus were both quite cuddly individuals when they slept, and he had to spend more than a few minutes detangling himself. Remus was fast asleep, and though John really didn't want to leave, he was about ninety-seven percent sure his friends would want to know why on earth he was missing for over twenty-four hours. Plus, he really needed to go to class. John scribbled a note explaining that he would return to spend time with Remus (if he was awake) during lunch and dinner before realizing he was already late for class and still needed to brush his teeth, clean up, get dressed, find his wand, not have time to eat, and run to class. A growl came from his stomach as he hurried to Gryffindor tower and he tried to remember what class he was supposed to be in. If he remembered correctly, it was History of Magic?

He stopped in his tracks before laughing. Why was he worried about getting to class? John proceeded to leisurely make his way to his dorm room to fetch clothes before heading off towards the restroom to brush his teeth. His bath was, admittedly, much longer than he needed, but he came out of it smelling of freshly cut grass and lemons, so he didn't really care. Hogwarts baths were incredible, and he felt quite good by the time he was returning to his dormitory to drop off his dirty clothes and pick up his bookbag. After about ten minutes of searching, he found that his wand had rolled far under his four-poster bed, and he had to reach quite a bit to get it. Deeming himself ready for class, he checked his watch once more. History of Magic was nearing its end, and John was quite hungry. It wouldn't hurt to be late for Charms, right?

John's stomach told him it would be fine, and he hurried down to the kitchen. He was greeted by several house-elves who seemed to be busy getting lunch ready. They took the time to get him a filling meal to eat, however, and soon he was on his way to Charms. John was quite thankful for all his exploring done in his first year, as he managed to make it to class within fifteen minutes due to several odd passage-ways. He wondered if the Marauders knew about them? They probably did. No point in asking, really. When he walked into the room, Professor Flitwick seemed midway in a demonstration of what John recognized as the Severing Charm, Diffindo. He muttered a quick apology before taking the last seat available, next to Peter. Sirius was at the table beside him, and the grey-eyed boy shot him a questioning look. John shook his head, mouthing that he would explain later. Professor Flitwick released them to begin practicing on the ropes he had set up around the room, and everyone naturally dispersed into groups. James and Sirius approached John immediately.

"Okay, so it makes sense for Remus to disappear on and after a full moon, what's your excuse?" John bit his lip.

"After we figured it out I couldn't sleep." Before he could be interrupted, John pressed on in a hushed tone. "I wandered about for a while and ended up baking a pie for Allie, and when I went onto the school grounds, I saw Madame Pomfrey helping Remus out from the Whomping Willow. I'd been worried about him all night, so I followed them, and she let me see him when I told her I knew what was wrong. I kind of…" John blushed. "I fell asleep."

"That still doesn't explain why you were missing all day."

"It is illegal to move when a cute animal is resting on you." John stuck his tongue out. "I don't want to talk about it right now, so if you're really that curious, ask me later when we're going to bed or something." John walked away from them so he could be with Lily, and she immediately asked him a question.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I was just helping Madame Pomfrey." He smiled. It wasn't a lie, really.

The rest of Charms passed with no more incident than Sirius 'accidentally' aiming the spell at people's skirts. Needless to say, he was chased out of the classroom. James attempted to do the same to Lily, only to find himself unable to move any of his limbs. John laughed at their antics, and, feeling quite mischievous when Sirius returned, proceeded to cut a large chunk of the taller boy's hair off. Upon noticing he was missing a large amount of hair, Sirius glared at his friends, noticing immediately that John was in hysterics. A chase ensued, and Sirius was found sporting a rather fashionable-yet-choppy haircut later in the day. Many people thought it strange and slightly disturbing that the Gryffindor of the Black family would have short hair, but didn't dare comment on it.

When Charms ended, John quickly gathered his things, heading to the classes he and Remus had missed the previous day. His friends had barely reached their desks where their bags were when they saw him rushing out the door. Speaking to all of his teachers, he bookmarked the pages he would need to go over to be caught up for next class. A quick trip to the kitchens and he found himself returning to the Hospital Wing. Surprisingly, he opened the door to see Severus talking to Madame Pomfrey. The Mediwitch cast some sort of spell and soon, the bright pink hearts dotted over every part of him faded away. When the Slytherin boy turned around, he looked embarrassed, quickly rushing out of the room. Poppy laughed slightly, and John couldn't help but smile as well before asking if Remus was awake. The woman nodded, and thanked him for bringing the food before gesturing to where Remus was hidden by curtains. She walked out of the room, presumably going to get a meal of her own.

"I brought lunch." John stated as he walked behind the curtains. Remus was sitting up in bed, reading some sort of book.

"I know."

"Oh right, you can probably smell it!" John laughed. "Sorry, I almost forgot."

"It's fine. Fun fact though, my senses are especially heightened around the full moon. And I quite like lemons." He said the last part a little quietly, and John realized he was referring to whatever shampoo he had used that morning.

"Thank you." He sat next to Remus on the bed, setting the food on his lap. "I hope you like it. I asked the house elves not to cook the meat very much."

"... I didn't think you were paying attention."

"I always pay attention to people I'm close to!" John sounded offended. "Also, when you see Sirius again, don't ask him about his hair if I'm nearby. We learned Severing charms today." Remus laughed, and John thought it was quite cute. "Oh, and Severus was covered in bright pink hearts just now. It's probably best not to mention that either. Our friends get up to a lot of mischief, you know."

"Well, they don't call themselves the Marauders for nothing, you know. They coined the name after I told them about the Three Musketeers. Thought it'd be cool to have a name to be known by."

"That's funny. You're a Marauder too, though. You don't seem especially mischievous." A smirk made its way onto Remus's face.

"Who do you think comes up with all the fancy spellwork behind their ideas?" John gasped in an over-exaggerated manner.

"And here I thought you were a good boy!"

The two of them laughed, and the rest of lunch was spent eating, talking about random things, and catching up on schoolwork from the one day they missed. By the time lunch ended, they had pretty much completely caught up, and John somewhat awkwardly said goodbye. Remus shot him a smile and waved slightly before John began to gather his things. He then left the Hospital Wing, rushing off to Potions. John discovered that he actually liked potion-brewing quite a bit, and was slightly upset when he was left to pair with Peter. It wasn't that he particularly disliked Peter, it was more that he wanted to pair with someone who was actually good at potions. Or Remus, but that wasn't an option at that moment. He spent much of his time that class period preventing Peter from adding too much salamander blood to the Wiggenweld Potion they were brewing. John found himself missing Remus and wishing that he could be paired with Lily, but alas, she was with Alice.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and when John visited Remus for dinner, he caught him up on what they had learned that day. He noticed that his werewolf friend was starting to drift off and smiled, making him lie down. John shushed him when he protested, telling him to get some rest. Remus grumbled, but was too tired to argue anymore, quickly falling asleep. John smiled as he pulled the sheets up to his chin, leaving quietly to go to Gryffindor tower. As soon as he walked into the common room, he noticed the three Marauders waiting for him. He blinked, waving and smiling somewhat awkwardly. It wasn't as if he had given them all of his answers, after all. It was Sirius who spoke first.

"Okay, so why were you missing for all of the meals today?"

"I was with Remus in the Hospital Wing. Brought him food from the kitchens."

"Wait," James looked startled. "You know where the kitchens are?"

"Yeah, the first floor of the dungeons, tickle the pear." The purebloods exchanged mischievous looks. "How did you not know that? I found out last year."

"Not important. Why did you need to be in the Wospital Hing?"

"I'm going to assume you said it like that on purpose, James." Before he continued, Sirius spoke.

"Oi, mate, didn't we just realize today a very good reason for John spending all his free time with our good friend?"

"What reason?"

"Well, wouldn't you do the same for Evans?"

"... Point taken."

"I don't see why you'd need me to answer any questions, really. The answers aren't that hard when you think about it."

"What was that about it being illegal to move when there's a cute animal on you, though? That didn't make any sense." James looked curious, and John began to blush.

"Remus is… a very affectionate person when he sleeps." He pressed on before anyone could say anything. "Anyways, have you lot found anything about Animagi?"

"Yeah. We have to keep a Mandrake leaf in our mouths for a month at some point. And I think there's this new potion we can take to figure out what kind of Animagus we'll become in the end. We're not too good at potions though, and we can't ask Remus to brew it because he'll get suspicious."

"Remus is awful at potions anyways. I can brew it easy, though. Pretty sure the only person in our year who's better at potions than me is Severus." James snorted.

"You mean Snivellus?"

"No." John frowned. "I mean Severus. He may not be very nice to me, but he's still Lily's friend. That's not the point though. I'm good at potions. I can help."

"That's fantastic! The potion directions can only be found in the Restricted Section of the library, I bet. I can look for it tomorrow night."

"And how d'you expect to be able to sneak into the library at night?" John raised a brow, and James grinned.

"I may or may not be in possession of an Invisibility Cloak." Judging by the lack of reaction from the other Marauders, John assumed he was the only one out of the loop.

"Okay. I assume it'll take a while to make, but hopefully I'll have it done before the winter break."

"Wait, where're you planning on brewing it?"

"There's this place behind a mirror that'd be good for hiding things. Honestly, you act like you've never found a single hidden passage."

"Yeah, well how many have you found?"

"Too many to list off the top of my head, now, if it's quite alright with you, I'd like to attend all of my classes on time tomorrow. James, get me the book as soon as possible. Peter, make sure these two idiots don't get into trouble. Sirius, keep being you." John went up the stairs to the dormitories.

"How come you get off without any orders?"

"You're the one who suggested sneaking into the library at night. Honestly, who does that?" Sirius followed John to their room, noting that the other boy was already in his bed with the curtains drawn.

James and Peter shrugged at each other, joining the other two. The following day, Remus walked into Transfiguration halfway through the lesson. He paired with Peter, and the only event of interest that occurred for the remainder of that month James finding John the book. The potion was quite difficult, possibly even more difficult than the Polyjuice potion he'd read about, and he had quite a bit of trouble finding the ingredients. Thanks to the help of his ridiculous friends, he was able to start on the first of the new month, as that was one of the requirements. He didn't really hide what he was doing from Remus, simply stating that he was off brewing a potion for his own amusement. The werewolf, not too fond of potions, didn't feel like getting into it. Lily, on the other hand, was quite hard to shake off. It was when Allie asked him that he knew he couldn't make something up, and he ended up telling her the whole truth. Her first response was something along the lines of:

"If you don't let me become an animal to help your boyfriend I'm going to tell everyone about Gogo the Butterfly."

Gogo never made it out if its chrysalis. An eight year old John cried for weeks. He very wisely allowed his friend to join him in his highly illegal and possibly extremely dangerous quest to become an Animagus. Like he had promised, the potion was ready before winter break, but they had to wait until the twentieth for Remus to be out of their way. They didn't want him asking questions, after all, and that was the nearest full moon. Thankfully, it wasn't the type of potion that needed to be used right away. Unfortunately, Lily caught them the night they all tried to sneak out. At that point, John was really, honestly sick of her pestering him about what potion he was making, and he decided to tell her the full truth. Well, most of the full truth. Half of the full truth. So, in the end, not the full truth.

"We were going to meet up with Allie before taking the potion I've been brewing."

"And why on earth do you need to sneak out to do it?"

"Because it's illegal. We're going to become Animagi."

"John!" James exclaimed, looking startled. "That isn't something you just go about telling everyone!"

"I trust Lily." He frowned, looking at the redhead. "You won't tell anyone, will you? It's for Remus." She seemed to have a look of understanding, and John began to suspect that she knew Remus was a werewolf.

"I… I don't talk to him a lot, but I want to help. I may not end up being an Animagus like you in the end, but I want to help, at least." John smiled, and his other three friends looked surprised that Lily would be so willing to help them break the law.

"So it's great that Evans is coming with, but we can't all fit under the Invisibility Cloak."

"You have an Invisibility Cloak."

"It's been passed down in the family for generations, never fading or tearing. Quite impressive, wouldn't you say, Evans?" James raised his eyebrows as his grin grew. He was showing off. She tried not to be impressed.

"I can take Lily with me and meet up Allie. I've wandered about so much at night when I can't sleep that I know nearly all the secret passageways."

"We should make a map." Peter commented off-handedly.

"You know, that is a wonderful idea, Peter. That'll be our next project." Sirius praised, and soon the group split.

The Marauders made their way to the passage behind the mirror, and the other two went to meet Allie in an abandoned classroom that acted as the halfway point. The younger redhead looked quite excited, and surprised that Lily would be joining them. They took a very cautious path to the meeting place, and almost ran into several teachers along the way, but managed to reach their destination without being caught. John noticed with a grumble that Allie now had to lean down to fit through a particularly low secret tunnel that he didn't even need to slouch to fit through. He shook his head as they entered the room, the strong earthy scent of the potion quickly apparent. The totally not short boy took his wand out, conjuring up an extra cup for Lily, before pouring the liquid into the cups in equal amount.

"Now, before you drink it," John shot a look at Sirius. "I need to go over some things with you. First off; you need to put your own hair in it. Otherwise the potion will have an extremely violent reaction and you'll probably start melting or something." Sirius gulped, putting a hand on his hair which had barely reached its normal length after the severing incident. "Second; I don't know if the potion is one-hundred percent safe. I plan on taking it first, so don't drink any until I say so."

"But John, what if it doesn't work?"

"Then take me to Poppy and tell her it was all my idea." Allie didn't seem satisfied by the answer, but didn't argue.

"This potion puts you into a sort of trance-like state. If it works, the drinker should wake up within half an hour. If I'm still asleep at the forty-five minute mark, that probably means it didn't work." John reached up, plucking a hair from his head and wincing before dropping it into the liquid. It turned from a dull brown to a scarlet colour. "Wish me luck."

He passed out upon downing the concoction, and he quickly realized he was in a forest of some sort. Animals were all around, but they seemed to be minding their own business. John decided to climb a tree, hoping he would find his Animagus form better from higher ground. Or maybe he was a bird? Either way, he decided climbing a tree was a good idea. Thankful for the fact that his trance-induced dream-self had better muscles than he had in real life, he quickly reached the top of the tree. The sounds of nature and singing were all around, and he spotted a nest of nest of small, blue eggs. Blinking, he drew closer, seeing a mother bird sitting there. She let out a startled chirp, protecting her young. John nearly fell out of the tree when her mate arrived in a feathered mess of screaming. He made eye contact with the overprotective bird and realized the specific species of it must be the red capped robin. John frowned, as he hadn't known anything about any sort of bird before that moment.

He felt a strange connection to it, but after determining he wasn't a threat, the small bird flew away, leaving the mother and her eggs. Soon, one of them began to hatch, slowly followed by the rest of his siblings. The newly hatched birds were featherless and hideous, but John couldn't help but feel a sort of fondness towards them. The eldest squawked once before making eye contact with him. It quickly shut up, and, in a confusing burst of feathers, seemed to explode into an adult robin. Puffing its new feathers up, John noticed them taking on a lighter, more brown hue as they settled. It began picking at its wings, and the red seemed to match the Gryffindor scarlet. Its dark, beady eyes looked to be tinged green, and John quickly realized that this (not) tiny bird was him. He reached a hand out, and it hopped onto his finger as their surroundings faded to white.

John shot up with a start, looking down to see that there wasn't a bird on his hand anymore. Allie seemed to sigh with relief, hugging him upon seeing he was fine. The group determined that the potion was safe, and began putting their own hair in it. John noted that Sirius's turned black, James's turned a more rich brown, Peter's turned a strange dirty sort of colour, Allie's changed to match her hair, as did Lily's. Remembered the scarlet cap of his newly discovered Animagus form, John wondered if it had anything to do with the colouration of their animal counterparts. When the rest of them woke up, John began sharing his story.

"I woke up in a sunny forest. Climbed a tree and almost got mauled by a bird before one of his eggs hatched and turned out to be my Animagus. I think it's a red capped robin, but the black part is brown like my hair instead." Allie was the next to speak.

"I think I was in Australia? Anyways, I nearly got trampled by dingo. She barked weirdly at me before shaking herself and her fur changed to match my hair." At everyone's questioning looks, she laughed. "A dingo is a type of wolf. Sorry John, I guess I get to be more like your boyfriend than you do."

"He's not my boyfriend! And either way, you know what they say: opposites attract."

"That's just his way of saying he wants him to be his boyfriend." Allie whispered loudly, receiving a fake glare and a soft punch in the arm. She laughed.

"Well, mine ended up being a doe. Nothing really special happened, but her fur also kind of matches my hair. Not as dark red though. Her eyes also tinted green." Lily said, directing the conversation back to Animagi.

"Well, Evans, darling, it's just meant to be, isn't it? I'm a stag." Lily just looked offended.

"What about you two?" Allie looked at Sirius and Peter before a fight could break out.

"I was in some weird, crowded sewers. There were alligators for some reason? Anyways… I'm… a rat…" Peter looked upset.

"Hey, that's cool! You get to be tiny and run away from extremely dangerous situations!" Allie exclaimed, trying to cheer him up.

"What sort of Gryffindor would do that?" James sounded disbelieving.

"A smart one. What kind of idiot tries to fight someone they have no hope of defeating? Besides, being small as a rat could have great advantages during battle! You could have a dramatic element of surprise! Plus you'd be able to fit into small spaces and help out that way. It's pretty cool, way more useful than a stag."

"Oi!"

"You have to admit, your antlers are going to get in the way." Allie put her hands up by her head, mimicking the antlers of a stag.

"Sirius?" The normally talkative boy had been strangely quiet.

"... I was in a muggle subway. There weren't any animals around, so I got on a train. When I felt like getting off, there was a dog on the ground. Nobody looked at him but me." He frowned. "He looked like he'd been abandoned, but he was waiting for something, someone most likely…" Sirius looked deep in thought. "It's weird. You lot were in places full of wildlife, but all I saw was an abandoned mutt."

"I'm sure it doesn't mean anything." The book with the potion recipe had clearly stated that your vision would be influenced by your state of mind. Sirius grinned, and John was glad he didn't tell him the truth.

"I'm a big, black dog! Bet I could chew right through any bone!"

Yes, he was quite glad he had lied, but that just rose questions of Sirius's home life. It wasn't like the eldest Black son ever spoke of his family, after all. After disposing of the last of the potion, the group returned to Gryffindor tower, save for Allie, who easily returned to her Hufflepuff dorm room. As the rest of them turned in for the night, John couldn't help but worry for his friend. Sirius had been the only one to stay at school for winter break their first year, and John was beginning to think there was more to it than wanting to have a Hogwarts Holiday. He pushed the thought out of his head. All of them would be there for the holidays this year, and there was no point in bringing it down with personal questions. That by no means meant that he would forget about it, however. He just needed to find an opportune moment...

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_**Word Count: 4,205**_

**Long? Sorry if it seems like it's speeding by so quickly ;v; Anyways, next chapter will be Christmas in Gryffindor Tower! James is really the only one excited at first, haha. Sirius needs his beauty sleep! (And Remus is still tired from the full moon he was busy with this chapter) Anyways, if you want me to write the dream-states I guess I can, but I don't see the point? They're nothing special, really. I'm going to try and draw something for the cover image, it'll probably be John with a robin on his finger. Like I said, next chap is Christmas, and soon we'll be speeding through 3rd and 4th year (hopefully). Anyways!**

**Guest (Lala):**** Yup, p cute stuff there. They're just... y'know... super gay yo... But anyways, this chapter answers your question of what Animagus form John will take, as well as if Allie will be involved! Now, I know Lily took the potion to see what she'd become, but she is actually NOT going to become an Animagus. Something about being too prideful to accept that she'd be to doe to Potter's stag~**

**See ya next time!**


	15. Chapter 14

On the morning of December twenty-fifth, John was startled awake by someone jumping on his bed and shouting excitedly about presents. He just grumbled in response and pushed the energetic Potter boy off of him. James ran to Peter's bed next, practically deafening the poor boy with his yelling. John shoved his head under the pillow when Peter joined James in his excitement. It vaguely occurred to him that Sirius was the next victim and the sound of a pillow smacking someone could be heard. Sirius was certainly not a morning person. John didn't move until he realized James would be waking Remus up next. He expertly threw his pillow, knocking the taller boy's glasses off. James glared at him, which John returned in full. The totally not small boy stretched before slumping over.

"Why the hell'd you wake us up so early?" John was not amused.

"It's Christmas!" James looked almost offended.

"I don't celebrate Christmas. Let me sleep." He pulled the covers over his head.

"You don't ce- how can you not celebrate Christmas!?"

"I live in a Jewish town. If I celebrated anything it'd be Chanukah."

"What about you, mate?" James had turned to speak to Sirius.

"James. It's four in the morning. I don't celebrate anything at four in the morning."

"Would you celebrate at six in the morning?"

"Yeah, I guess. I doubt I got anything though. Now give me at least two hours." He promptly fell back asleep.

"At least Peter is fun." James sighed.

"What about Remus?"

"John sacrificed his pillow to stop me from waking him." The bespectacled boy picked said pillow up, tossing it onto John's head. "What are we supposed to do with his presents? I got him some cool stuff, too."

"I'm still awake you know. I'll take anything you got me." John begrudgingly sat up. "Why so early though?" He rubbed his eyes.

"Wh- it's- it's Christmas! 'Tis the season to be jolly? Presents, John! You have to wake up early or it loses all the fun!" James couldn't understand why his friends weren't more excited. John sleepily put his feet on the ground, glad he was wearing socks as he sat up, realizing that James wasn't about to shut his trap. "Anyways, why didn't you let me wake Remus?"

"It was the full moon five days ago. Did you already forget? He just got back yesterday."

"So? Everyone has energy for Christmas."

"James, he usually needs at _least_ three days to recover enough to leave the Hospital Wing. It takes another four or so to be completely healthy again. He only got back yesterday, so he won't be completely functional until the twenty-eighth at the earliest."

"Yeah, and why do you care so much?"

"I want to be a healer when I grow up. Besides, wouldn't you do the same for Lily?"

That seemed to be a recurring sentence among the Marauders recently. It was a good way to shut him up. John had discovered that, while James was fun to be around at times, he could be obnoxiously stubborn and close minded. The short boy stood up, stretching slightly before walking to Remus's bed. Remus looked exhausted, as was expected after a full moon. After John had taken care of the werewolf the previous month, he had vowed to do much of the same from then on. It brought the two closer, and gave him some practice in actually being a healer. Poppy had begun to instruct him on little things that he could do to help, and told him how to make many potions specialized in helping a werewolf recover. Caring for a werewolf at age twelve would look impressive on most job applications, he thought! Though, he mostly did it because he wanted to help Remus. The practice was only a convenient side effect.

Seeing James's expectant, expression, John gently shook Remus's shoulders. The gold-eyed boy groaned as he pulled the blanket up further, and John couldn't help but smile a little. He shook him again, and Remus looked at him, eyes heavy with sleep. John thought he heard his other two conscious friends attempting to wake Sirius up, and he patted Remus on the cheek. He sat up slowly, a questioning look on his face, and John quickly explained that James was bouncing off the walls because he wanted to celebrate Christmas with everyone. Remus laughed slightly, mentioning offhandedly that he probably hadn't gotten much. A glance at Remus's pile of gifts and he confirmed that the other had gotten just as much as John had. Which was odd, now that he thought about it, because John's parents didn't celebrate Christmas. He shrugged, deciding to worry about it later before suggesting they open their gifts in the common room. Maybe Lily would be up? That was highly unlikely.

James seemed fine with the suggestion, asking Peter for help carrying Sirius. The two practically dragged their still snoozing friend downstairs and John heard a yelp. He could only assume that they had dropped him on the ground, and he turned to look at Remus, who was rubbing his eyes and shivering. John offered to get him a sweater from his trunk, and the other boy smiled, accepting his help. That was probably only because he was still recovering from the full moon. He tended to be more compliant during his recovery periods. After getting his sweater on, Peter ran up the stairs, muttering something about presents before levitating a pile of gifts down the stairs. John and Remus shrugged at each other, and John offered to take both of their piles downstairs. Remus, not in the mood to find his wand, nodded before shuffling out the door.

John walked downstairs with his and Remus's gifts levitating behind him, and the sight that graced his eyes was that of James on all fours while Sirius used his back as a chair. Not even questioning it, he gave them a look of amusement, and James grunted before managing to push Sirius's balance over and running up to the dormitory, likely to get his presents. Sirius yelled in shock before running after him, nearly tripping up the stairs. A door could be heard slamming before loud laughter came from a certain James Potter. Sirius returned with his pile of presents, only slightly larger than Remus's. John found that to be a bit odd, as Sirius came from one of the most famous wizarding families around. James's laughter didn't stop until Lily came down, hair pulled back and in pajamas. She looked irritated until Sirius said he landed a tickling charm on Potter. Sirius received a satisfied smile, and upon seeing the piles of presents, Lily flicked her wand, summoning her own gifts from her dorm. It was the largest of the group, and James soon came down with his own pile. He looked a little shocked that Lily had more than him, but wisely said nothing about it.

By the time the group had arranged themselves in a circle, Remus had fallen back asleep, using John's lap as a pillow. Lily giggled, causing her friend to blush before shaking the werewolf awake. Remus sat up like nothing had happened and soon the present opening began, starting with Lily, as her pile was the largest. The first gift she opened was from James Potter, and seemed to be a bunch of rubbish on paper, as she immediately wadded the parchment up and tossed in the fire. James, though crestfallen, scanned his pile, eyes lighting up at the sight of something quite long and thin that was from his parents. Sirius, previously pretending to snore, immediately shot up at the sight of the object. The wrapping paper was ripped off with gusto.

"Woah, no way!" Peter exclaimed.

"Isn't that the-" Sirius began, and the other two joined him. "Nimbus 1001?"

"A Nimbus! Can you believe it? This model barely came out last year!"

The three of them gathered around the broom, and the other half of the people in the room shrugged. After a lot of Quidditch speak, the conversation returned to whatever random topics came up. James seemed to be holding his new broom like a lifeline, and Peter was the next to open a present. It was a cauldron full of Chocolate Frogs (from his parents), which Remus likely would have attempted to steal had he been fully awake. Sirius opened the present he received from his brother, Regulus, and he smiled slightly, showing off a pair of two-way mirrors. He and James exchanged mischievous looks, but dared not say anything with Lily in the room. Remus quietly opened a gift, the book being something about Lycanthropy, though John couldn't see the title fully before he tucked it away. The Marauders, for whatever reason, had decided to hide that they knew about his affliction until they became Animagi. John thought that was stupid, and it was his turn next. He had gotten a book from Remus, titled '_Possibly More Advanced Healing Spells for the Fledgling Healer'_. James snorted slightly at the fact that Remus had gotten someone a book.

"I bet you got me something pranking related. At least Remus bothered to get a book I was looking for." It was true; John had been searching for the thick, green book in the library only a week ago, but to no avail. It was nowhere to be found.

"It's nothing special, really. My dad said he saw it when he went to Diagon Alley recently so I just asked him to get it." Remus casually left out the fact that his dad ended up spending quite a bit of money on the book and Remus would be expected to pay him back after doing odd jobs all summer long.

Gift opening continued, and the people with larger piles of gifts opened several on their turns. The rest of James's objects consisted of, but were not limited to various prank-related objects and merchandise related to some sort of Quidditch team. Lily's gifts were quite varied, as they were from many people she was friends with, as well as her family. Peter got a new wizarding chess set, and a deck of exploding snap cards, as well as a book that John didn't catch the cover of. Funnily enough, Sirius received all sorts of muggle hair products, from several different people. Brushing it off, he only said that they knew nothing about the products needed to pull of his 'do, and proceeded to unwrap several books that he quickly tossed in the fire. John thought one of them said something about dark arts. Remus's gifts were mostly chocolate and books, but it seemed that someone had anonymously sent him a small wood carving of a wolf. He hid it immediately.

John had only gotten six gifts; four from his dormmates, one from Lily, and one from his parents. He wasn't surprised at all by Allie's lack of gift, as the younger witch didn't celebrate Christmas either. Remus's gift was, as mentioned before, a book about healing magic. Lily had gotten him what looked to be a plant-growing kit, and Peter had given him several cauldron cakes. James and Sirius, ever the pranksters, had gotten him objects that John daren't get too close to, lest he be pranked horribly. He would probably check it out later, when he was alone and preferably close to the Hospital Wing. The small boy had almost gotten away with leaving the oddly lumpy gift from his parents unwrapped, but Sirius and James gave him a pointed look. It seemed that keeping a safe distance from their presents required he at least open the last, though he really wasn't looking forward to it.

He was confused that his parents had even sent him a Christmas gift in the first place. Sure, he was happy to watch his friends participate in the holiday, as well as awkwardly open his own presents, but his parents had never celebrated it in his lifetime. The fact that it was suspiciously soft led him to suspect that it was an article of clothing. He hadn't shopped with his parents in over three years. Any clothes they gave him had immediately been passed to Allie so that she would either wear them or dispose of them. Noticing the card that came with it, he decided to open that first, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. Everyone was staring at him, and the letter read as follows:

'Dear Melanie,

How is our darling little girl? You haven't written a single letter to us since the school year started! We miss you terribly, and we know none of us celebrate Christmas, but we don't want your friends thinking we don't love you, because we really do. So, that's why you've received a gift from us! We didn't know what to get for you, because you've spent so much time with Allie lately, so we thought we would buy you something nice to wear. Hope you like it, and we hope you've made a lot of friends. Don't go bringing any boyfriends home, though!'

It was signed with love from his mum and dad, and he wanted to open it even less at that point. Sirius and James looked at him impatiently, and he shoved the card at Lily, who was looking at him with concern. He ran a hand through his hair, staring at the lumpy package that he wanted to throw in the fireplace. Not sure what to do, he was quite surprised at Lily's reaction.

"Oh, bollocks, that's where this got off to!" The boys looked at her in confusion, John especially. Lily casually took the present from him, unwrapping it. "I asked my mum to send this over from home ages ago." It was a vanilla coloured lace dress with bronze buttons at the collar. "The owl got confused, I suppose. I'm glad it's here, though! It's my favorite summer dress."

"When were you supposed to get it?" Sirius asked, kind of confused.

"Well, spring of last year. It was quite warm and I wanted to wear it on weekends, though I suspect it may be a tad short on me now."

It was very subtle, but it was still a jab at John's height. He pouted, though only Lily saw it. She winked, and he smiled, not being able to thank her properly. He was sure she got the message. A glance at John's watch revealed that it was six in the morning, and Sirius fell asleep on a couch, now that the gift-opening session was over. Remus looked like he was making a huge effort to keep his eyes open, and Peter looked a bit drowsy as well. Lily and James were the only ones who seemed to have any energy, but Lily quickly faked a yawn as she saw Potter getting ready to make a move. She stood, smoothing out her nightgown as she made her way up the stairs, presents in tow. James groaned, but there was nobody he could complain to, as Sirius was asleep, Peter was getting there, and John was attempting to carry Remus to his bed. The werewolf eventually woke up enough to semi-carry himself, using John as support. They both fell on his bed, and John suspected James had snuck off to use his new broom.

A vague thought told him that he needed to thank Lily properly, but he was more concerned with the werewolf currently using him as a pillow. Part of him said he should really stop letting the other do that, lest he start thinking it was odd, but that part was overrode by the part of him saying that he should just go for it. Remus was surprisingly cuddly. Did it have anything to do with being part wolf? John decided he didn't care, and the two of them stayed there for the rest of the day, with the slight interruption of their dormmates and the occasional bathroom/food/get-another-book break. It was quite pleasant, he discovered. Though he may not celebrate the holiday, he found that it wasn't unpleasant to live through.

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_**Word Count: 2,697**_

**A mostly pointless Christmas chapter. I've noticed that, because of John, Lily is more tolerable of James and Sirius. I don't have much of anything left to write for 2nd year, so next chapter is probably going to be summer and John properly meeting Allie's parents, as he was never allowed in the extremely magical house before! I'd like to let you know I've planned this fic out all the way through all of Harry's years at Hogwarts, and some canon events will change. Sirius will probably still die, however, as his death (like Lily and James's) is plot important according to the events of this ****fic-series.**

**Lala: I mainly made Lily a doe because that's what her Patronus is. McGonagall, who is a cat Animagus, also has a cat Patronus, so I figured the same would apply to any other Animagi. As for John, I mainly just like birds so I looked at bird symbolism. This is what I copied into his bio sheet: **Joy, Hope, Clarity, Renewal, Pleasure, Simplicity, Happiness, Satisfaction, Rejuvenation, Contentment, Bright future, and New beginning. I'm not sure if that really fits him, but I liked the view of the future/new beginning stuff? Anyways: main point is that he's a tiny bird and that's really cute. Allie/Sirius/Remus do indeed make a fun canine trio, so you can definitely look forward to that! Glad you're enjoying the John/Remus fluff. All I can say about that is... enjoy it while it lasts. You'll be mad at me during fifth year, that's for sure.

**I hope you lovely readers will continue to read and enjoy this fic! I'd love it if more people could review (yo Lala you're like my main motivation bc at least I know someone cares enough to review. wish you had an account so I could PM you!) but hey, if you don't want to that's cool!**

**I have all the way up to the end of the second war planned out, and am debating whether or not to do the Next-Gen (mostly focused around John being a super dad and Remus maybe teaching DADA again. Also Teddy. Dunno about him and Victoire though...), so I hope you guys (note: I use 'guys' as a gender neutral term) stay along for the ride! See you next time, though be warned that that could take quite a long time! I've been updating a lot recently, but that's coming to an end now because of academic reasons;;;**

**Love you guys! ****Á**** bientôt!**


	16. Chapter 15

It was the summer of that year of 1973 that John found himself entering Allie's house for the first time. Previously, he had been mildly offended that she never invited him over, but the reason for this was now glaringly obvious. Allie's mother was, quite clearly, a witch. The tall redheaded woman used magic for quite a lot of things, and there were more than a few moving paintings. Chores did themselves and the cleaning sort of brooms danced across the floor every so often. Even the dinner seemed to be cooking itself! John found himself amazed that he never realized his best friend was a witch. Allie had been making odd references to Merlin and the like for her whole life. The short boy spent quite a bit of time at her house, becoming even closer to Allie's family. He found it interesting to note that her parents seemed to know he was male, and though he was miffed about her telling them without his consent, he decided he was glad she did so. They seemed to know not to say anything to his parents, and John couldn't help feeling happy about that.

It seemed all too soon that he was returning to Hogwarts for his third year at the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His time spent with his parents that summer had been minimal, and he had the suspicion they were beginning to suspect something. John didn't want to spend any time with them. He planned on staying at Hogwarts for all the breaks they had. The ride on the Hogwarts Express was quite pleasant, with John and Allie joining the Marauder's compartment. It was a bit crowded with the six of them, but John didn't exactly mind being squished between Allie and Remus. Most of the talk was about prank ideas, and John noticed Remus shoot down quite a few of them due to difficulty and impracticality before proceeding to suggest an alternative. He was definitely a Marauder, despite what appearances suggest. After quite an entertaining train ride, the group split up to claim carriages. John and Allie met up with Lily and Severus, and they rode to Hogwarts in a somewhat awkward manner. Something about Severus seemed different, though John couldn't tell what.

He forgot about that suspicion upon entering the Great Hall, and after ignoring the Sorting Ceremony sand stuffing themselves silly, everyone went to bed. The next day, James informed the group of fledgling Animagi that he managed to get his hands on some Mandrake leaves over the summer. John remembered that holding a Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month was one of the necessary tasks for becoming an Animagus, so he quickly thanked James and changed the topic as Remus entered the room. Later that week, Lily claimed that she wouldn't become an Animagus if she had to be the same thing as 'that rotten toerag' and John assumed she was talking about James. It was a shame, but the group threw themselves into becoming Animagi. Peter required quite a bit of assistance, and seemed quite embarrassed by that. John wasn't a natural at it either, as it was an advanced branch of Transfiguration, but he refused to admit he needed any help. This resulted in him pushing himself harder than the others just to keep up.

John's schedule was so full of Animagi training, homework, personal training in healing magic, monthly full moon aftercare for Remus, and his side project of drawing a map of the school, that he nearly forgot about the first Hogsmeade trip. It was to his misfortune that he hadn't bothered trying to get his permission slip signed, and was thus left behind when the Marauders and Lily departed for Hogsmeade. Though John was disappointed, he found that he didn't mind too much. Allie would be with him, after all, and the two of them could work on becoming Animagi! That had been John's initial thought. Yes, that was what was on John's mind that day, but that vague plan was cut short after John took a quick trip to the restroom. His first question to Allie upon leaving was:

"Do I look like I have breasts?" Her answer was to place a hand on his chest before looking him in the eyes.

"Yes." Before she could say anything, John adopted an uncomfortable hunch in his shoulders.

"Oh god, do you think anybody's noticed? I think I'd die if any of the guys found out."

"John, I don't think people spend their time staring at your chest. I probably wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't asked me." John nodded, running a hand through his hair nervously.

"What do I do?"

"How should I know? I'm a girl." John groaned.

"Do you think I should talk to Professor McGonagall?" Allie raised her eyebrow.

"Why Minnie?" John ignored the lack of respect towards his favorite teacher, as he had more important things to worry about.

"I think she would be able to help, I don't know." A sense of panic washed over him as he realized that the odd pain in his chest he'd been ignoring for the past few months was likely attributed to his current predicament. Was Allie sure nobody had noticed?

"John, calm down." Allie put a hand on his shoulder. "If you think we should go to the Professor, then let's go to the Professor. I don't think I saw her leave for Hogsmeade, so we can probably find her."

"I wish we had a map of the school that showed us exactly where everyone was. Can you imagine how much easier that would make this?" John questioned as the two of them searched for the Transfiguration teacher.

"That would be convenient. We should make that." Allie commented absentmindedly as they determined that their target wasn't in her classroom.

"D'you think I should go to Poppy instead? I know she'd be in the Hospital Wing, at least. She practically lives there."

Allie simply nodded, and the two of them began to hurry towards the infirmary. It wasn't as if their situation really required rushing, but it made John feel better to move at a fast pace. He felt it was quite urgent, after all. Before long, they made it to the Hospital Wing, and he immediately called for Poppy. She left her office quite quickly, and John felt a strange bit of relief, though he didn't relax his shoulders or uncross his arms. Now that they were there, he didn't really know how to bring the subject up. Despite his closeness with the Mediwitch, she didn't know he was trans. That had been a secret he wanted to keep for as long as he can, and he wasn't too fond of many people knowing. Concerned looks came from the two females in the room, and John shakily explained himself. Poppy frowned.

"I'm sorry, dear. I don't know any potions or spells that could possibly stop puberty or reverse what's already developed. Have you spoken with Professor McGonagall yet?" The students shook their heads.

"We couldn't find her." Allie supplied.

"I'll go fetch her, don't worry. Just stay here and try to relax. If you can't do it on your own, you know where to find my potions."

Madame Pomfrey hurried out of the room to find the head of Gryffindor house. John and Allie sat themselves on one of the many hospital beds, and the redhead was rubbing her friend's back in what she hoped was a comforting manner. After a few moments, he laid down, resting his head on her lap. Allie simply ran her fingers through his hair, hoping his breathing would even out soon. She felt awful that she couldn't do anything more for him, but he thankfully managed to calm down after a bit. By the time Poppy returned with Professor McGonagall, he almost seemed back to normal, save for the fact that he wasn't blabbing away. The Transfiguration teacher couldn't help him either, though, and he felt his stomach knot up again.

"Mr. Smith, I know this is going to be hard for you, and I apologize for that." He nodded, sitting up now. "No spells have been created to aid in these sorts of issues, so the best we can do is to use muggle methods."

"Like what?"

"Well, chest-binding has been around for quite a long time, but we've recently discovered it can be quite unsafe if done incorrectly. It requires a special type of material and make, and it will likely make it hard for you to breath easily." John frowned. He would still do it, though. "Now, I'm sure we can make one that's a bit more comfortable than the muggle binders, and we can also likely get a sort of charm or enchantment that allows it to grow as you develop. I don't think Madame Pomfrey will be able to do this very easily alone, however, and I would like to ask for your permission to get Professor Flitwick's help." John nodded.

"Thank you…"

"I'd also like to tell the rest of the teaching staff so that if you're having a hard time breathing, you may be excused from class. I don't have to tell them the full truth, but I would like to inform them that you may start having breathing problems related to something personal."

John nodded again. He was looking down at his hands in his lap, and was understandably surprised by the sudden close proximity the Transfiguration teacher. McGonagall had sat next to him on the hospital bed, putting an arm around his shoulder. He looked up at her in some sort of confusion before seeing a warm, motherly smile grace her lips. After returning the hug, the usually strict woman stayed with him for a bit, reassuring him, before standing, claiming that she needed to speak with Professor Flitwick. Poppy followed after, telling John that he could go to her for anything. At that, John and Allie were left alone in the Hospital Wing. The two of them sat there for a bit before Allie practically dragged him out.

"John, come on, nobody is going to notice."

"But-"

"No, I mean it! Plus, it's getting colder and you can wear baggy sweaters all you want now." John had to admit she had a point.

Soon, they were simply exploring the hidden passageways of the castle, eventually finding themselves laughing at a statue. The plaque seemed to say Gregory the Smarmy, and John couldn't help but agree he looked quite smarmy. They joked around with the statue before discovering it actually concealed a passage. Despite Allie's protests, John dragged her along. It began to get colder the further they walked, and they eventually poked their heads out in an almost boring sort of building. John quickly left the tunnel, determining they were in some small antique shop in Hogsmeade. Pulling a reluctant Allie with him, he noted that she seemed quite eager to break the law and become a Dingo, yet sneaking into Hogsmeade was improper. She smacked him on the arm after he voiced his opinion, and proceeded to drag him back to the castle after he bought a Sugar Quill.

John had pouted, but in the end he was glad they returned quite soon. It wouldn't do for someone to get suspicious of them, after all. They spent the rest of their day lounging around in the Gryffindor common room, and that was that. When the others returned, he kept his distance, still worried his friends would notice. They didn't. John realized that Allie was quite right when she said nobody spent their time staring at his chest. It was a feeling of relief, and classes progressed as usual. It was during a particularly boring Divination class that he was summoned to Professor McGonagall's office. The Marauders (and Lily) looked at him with some concern, but Allie shot him a grin which he happily returned. A few weeks had passed since his dilemma had arisen, and he suspected that the teachers had finished with the making of his binder.

He was proved to be correct, and if his friends noticed his suddenly extremely poor endurance and increased lack of physical activity, they said nothing. Remus was the only one to notice his drop in potion-making ability, but when he asked he didn't receive a solid answer. John suspected that the atmosphere was simply too heavy for him to breath properly, and vowed to find some sort of charm to aid him in this. In the end it was Allie who found the charm after he mentioned his difficulties. Everything seemed to be going fine until one particular day of caring for Remus after the full moon. The werewolf had twitched his nose as John drew near, and the first thing out of his mouth was a bit unexpected.

"Are you bleeding?" John plastered a smile on his face, cursing his body.

"No." Remus raised an eyebrow, and John sighed, looking away.

"I can smell it."

"I know…" The werewolf looked at him in concern.

"John, if you're hurt you should tell Madame Pomfrey."

"N-no, I'm fine! I'm not hurt, really. I…" John tried to find a way out of telling Remus he was on his period. "I'm fine. Please trust me."

"John, I can smell blood."

"I-I'm fine, honest!" He really couldn't think of a convincing lie, and he somewhat suspected that Remus would be able to tell he was lying if he tried. The small boy tried not to groan as he felt a throb of pain from his cramps. "You don't need to worry about it."

"You're my friend, of course I'm going to worry about it." It was clear that Remus wasn't going to drop the subject, and John suspected there was no way he would be able to get out of telling him.

"I… Well, you have to promise not to tell anyone. The only people who know are Allie, Lily, and a few of the teachers." Remus nodded, as he had his own secret he didn't want people knowing about. "I'm… I'm on my period." John mumbled.

"Explain?" After the uncomfortable recognition of what that word meant in certain situations, Remus prompted the other to continue.

"Remember first year? The Sorting Ceremony?" Remus nodded, but he still didn't fully understand. "I was… I wasn't exactly born male. I'm a bloke, but my body doesn't seem to get that."

"... That sounds unpleasant." John couldn't read his expression, but his reaction wasn't negative. It seemed the other boy understood what he meant, at the very least.

"Please, don't tell anyone. I don't want them treating me any differently." A smile graced Remus's tired face.

"You haven't told anyone that I'm a werewolf. Why would I tell anyone about you?" John smiled back at him.

"Thank you."

Remus had fallen asleep soon after that, and John left to inform his two redheaded friends about Remus's knowledge of the situation. Allie found it amusing that Remus found out because he smelled blood, and John blushed, telling her to shut it. All-in-all, he found he was in quite a good mood despite the drawbacks and inconveniences that came with going through the wrong sort of puberty. The rest of the year passed without much incident, and the group continued making progress towards becoming Animagi, though there were more than a few roadblocks that came from hiding their illegal practices from anyone. Time seemed to fly by, and exams were taken before everyone was sent home for the summer. John's summer was spent in much the same manner as the previous one, and his parents were likely beginning to worry about him. One particular day after he returned from Allie's house, his parents seemed to be waiting for him. He blinked in surprise upon seeing their expectant looks, and began to fidget with the bottom of his shirt.

"Melanie," John flinched. "sweetie, we've barely seen you since you've gotten home." It was his mum. He liked his father a bit more than her, he realized.

"I've just been with Allie." John stated, wanted to retreat to his room and try to sprout wings. The Animagus training had become intense focus on one body part of their animal at a time.

"You've been with her an awful lot lately. Is there anything you want to tell us?" John blinked. His father seemed to think he was getting at something, but he was likely under the wrong impression.

"No."

"Darling, it's okay if you have a girlfriend. We won't judge you." John almost laughed.

"What? Allie is gay." He suddenly realized that that wasn't helping his case. "I mean…" He continued to fidget with the hem of his shirt. "Never mind. I just meant to say I'm still into blokes." It wasn't a lie.

"Just know you can talk to us about anything, okay, Melanie? I'll love you for whoever you are because you're my darling daughter."

His mother smiled at him, and he tried his best to return it, though his probably came out as more of a grimace. He knew his mother was probably really trying to help, but she never went about the right way of doing so. His father had looked more thoughtful. The man probably had more of an inkling as to what his issue was, but was still off the mark. John sighed as he practically ran up to his room, throwing himself on the bed. He knew he should probably tell them. Even if they did feel the need to disown him or kick him out of the house, he could always live with Allie. Either way, he decided he just wanted the summer break to be over as soon as possible.

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_**Word Count: 2,970**_

**I'm not really satisfied with this chapter? I just wanted to get 3rd Year out of the way. I'm kind of just like? I want to write 5th year. Like, really badly. But some important things happen in 4th year, and I need to take care of that first. Anyways, guest review time:**

**Maddy: Yeah, I'm really sorry about that! Eventually, I'm going to go back and edit the earlier chapters anyways because they aren't very good, so I don't really wanna go back and change every instance of Becky to Allie unless I'm really editing the chapters.**

**Lala:**** Well, you can definitely look forward to some ridiculous shenanigans between Sirius and Allie. I like to think the two of them act like brother and sister after they become Animagi! The canine trio'll get up to some ridiculous stuff in the forbidden forest, that's for sure. As for nicknames, I'm not sure Allie and John will get nicknames? They're not really part of the Marauders. John hangs out more with Allie and Lily than he does the Marauders, and Allie is kind of just friendly with everyone and also really bad at pranks. The Marauders themselves are probably going to come up with their nicknames sometime in fourth year, and there isn't really much to explain for their nicknames, as they're all based on their Animagus forms.**

**Anyways, this chapter probably would have been out yesterday but I was busy writing a Remus/John oneshot set in PoA where they're snogging and John is speaking French but then Harry walks in. Whops.**

**Until next time!**


	17. Chapter 16

**A/N - I know it's been a REALLY long time and I apologize for that, but please read the ending author's note!**

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By fourth year, it was clear that Sirius was also into blokes, though he seemed to have no problem courting the ladies either. John's first impression of him during first year had been one of slight admiration for his face, and with age he only seemed to look better. It was a passing observation most of the time, however, and he often found his thoughts drifting back to Remus. That didn't mean he wasn't particularly upset when the dog-like boy pranced about in nothing but his underpants. John found an irritated smile constantly make its way onto his face in the mornings he was unfortunate enough to see such a thing. It really didn't help that Remus let his gaze linger slightly on the other boy's chest. On those occasions, John usually found himself grabbing his clothes for the day and immediately leaving to find the restroom.

The year progressed, and it was much like his previous year, save for the fact that he was taking Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures as opposed to Divination and Arithmancy. He found he didn't particularly enjoy his previous choices of electives his third year, and was particularly happy with Care of Magical Creatures. Muggle Studies was, ironically enough, a class he struggled in, because he kept trying to correct the teacher. John gave up on that after a while, instead deciding to glare at the teacher every time a mistake was made. By the start of October, he found that he didn't really care about the errors, instead deciding to doodle hearts. Hearts were interesting shapes, and John found them quite difficult to make symmetrical.

John noted that little bits of whispers seemed to be going around. Everyone seemed to be talking about the rising threat of some Dark Lord. He thought that sounded a bit silly. Dark Lords? Those were only in books! Weren't they? A concerned Allie shot his blind hope from ignorance down, stating that there had been plenty of Dark Lords in the past. Grindelwald was one of them. John found that the fear around only dampened the general mood of the castle slightly, and with a bit of extra effort from the Marauders, everything seemed to be back to normal. Around halfway through the year, the map the group had been working on was all but finished, needing only the charms to be cast on it. Unfortunately for them, the charms required were rather difficult, and they decided to focus more on becoming Animagi before completing that endeavor.

Becoming an Animagus required a lot of hard work, and John started hating that he couldn't just be a bird already. He spent almost all of his free time practicing, but the awkward size change from human being to tiny bird made his transformation a bit more difficult than the others, barring Peter, who was having the same struggles as him. Lily had decided not to become an Animagus, but she still elected to help her friends. Allie seemed to have an odd, natural gift for self-transfiguration, but it was James who transformed first. He had almost been too excitable when he rushed into the fourth year boy's dormitories that day. It was about halfway through June, and everyone was quite close to properly achieving their transformation. Allie had been in the room as well, playing a game of Battleship with John as Remus watched, the three of them engaging in pleasant conversation. Peter was playing chess by himself as Sirius hurried to finish an essay that would be due the next day. James practically slammed the door open, causing Remus to jump in surprise, thanks to his sensitive ears.

"Guys! You'll never guess what I just did!" Remus was rubbing his ears, and James didn't even pause to wait for them to guess. "I am now a fully-fledged-"

"Merlin, no warning for that or anything…" Remus grumbled, and James seemed to completely rethink what he was about to say.

"A fully fledged asshole." Sirius covered for him. "Look at this!" He held up the essay he was writing. "Completely covered in ink because you don't know how to open a door properly!"

"Maybe you should learn how to not knock your ink over."

"Maybe wizards should learn what a pen is."

It was a lot of back and forth like that until Remus seemed to realize he'd left a specific book in the library earlier that day. The werewolf walked out of the room, and soon James had everyone else huddled together where John and Allie had been playing Battleship. John put the game away, suspecting that whatever news James had for them was big. Allie seemed to decide it would be a good idea to close and lock the door, and after Sirius cast Muffliato, they seemed set to blab on about whatever illegal secrets were on their mind. After a whole lot of mood setting and dramatic backstory, Sirius got fed up with James's theatrics. It was likely because Sirius had an essay he had to rewrite.

"James. Shut your trap and tell us whatever it is you're trying to tell us."

"Yeah, I mean, I'd love to hear you go on about your life, but you interrupted a very interesting game of Battleship." John added offhandedly.

"I was about to win." Allie retorted, to which John responded by sticking his tongue out at her.

"Alright, fine. I was going for a big reveal, but I guess I'll just show you."

He stood from his spot on the floor, backing away from the group. Sirius dropped his irritated act as he joined the others in anticipation. Soon, James morphed into a rather impressive looking stag. Peter and Allie looked to be in awe, and while John was a little upset that James managed his transformation before him, he had to admit he was rather impressed. Sirius let a dog-like grin make its way onto his face, immediately getting up to look his friend over. He had a mischievous look on his face, likely thinking of new prank ideas. As he did this, Allie ran a hand over his fur.

"How did you manage so quickly? I'm having such a hard time with the last little bit I need to actually pull through." James reverted to his human state to talk.

"I was off on my own, flying around on my broomstick, and it just sort of came to me. I dunno what it was really, I just felt like I could do it, so I landed somewhere I know nobody goes and I just…" He shrugged. "I just did it." Allie groaned.

"That's so unhelpful. I was hoping you'd tell me to go into the Forbidden Forest or something, so I could discover the beast within me." Sirius blinked.

"Well, why don't we?"

"Are you kidding me? That sounds like a terrible idea." John objected.

"No, I mean it! I've kind of wanted to go in there since first year, but Peter was too much of a baby to come with." Sirius grinned.

"I heard there were werewolves in there." He mumbled in his defense.

"Now that you mention it, I did hear _something_ howling in there the night we figured out Remus's furry little problem." John commented.

"Furry little problem… I like that." James smiled, but Peter shivered.

"You heard howling? I may not have a problem with Remus, but if there are wild wolves in the forest-"

"Come off it, Peter. If you're really that scared you can ride on my back." James laughed.

"I kind of want to go, too, actually." Allie smiled. "Who else'll keep John from tripping over his own feet?" John took offense to that.

"Excuse you, I think I can stay on my feet well enough, thank you!" He moved his bangs out of his eyes, vaguely thinking that he needed a haircut. "Besides, who in the world said I was coming?"

"I did. We're all going to do it." Allie smiled. "It sounds like a fun bonding experience."

"We're all going to die." Peter whimpered, but James waved it off.

"We'll be fine." He laughed. "Should we do it tonight?"

"Shouldn't we wait til the full moon?" Sirius questioned as he remembered the spell to restore his previously ruined essay. A satisfactory grin made its way onto his face. Maybe he wouldn't fail the class after all! "It's the only time Remus won't be suspicious of anything. Right, John?"

"What? I mean… I guess." He shrugged. "If he asks why I'm so tired I can probably just tell him I was beside myself with worry." John said the last part rather dramatically, ending with an exaggerated sigh. It elected laughs from the others.

Before they could continue speaking, they heard someone try to open the door. They stopped talking immediately, hearing Remus say something in slight frustration before the lock clicked open. The group scattered, each going off to do their own thing, with Sirius finishing up his essay, John and Allie resuming their game of Battleship, Peter just sort of flopping onto his bed, and James preening with a handheld mirror. As Remus walked in, everyone greeted him as if they hadn't been having a secret meeting, and the werewolf looked sort of confused. Why wouldn't he be? The door was mysteriously locked, and he thought he noticed an odd silence caused by the Muffliato spell. He closed the door behind him, making himself comfortable on his own bed as he opened his recently retrieved book.

"Should I even bother to ask why the secrecy?"

"Probably not. It was something stupid anyways." James stated as he put the mirror down. "Y'know what's cool though?" For almost an entire minute, nobody said a word. John decided to humor him.

"What?"

"They still haven't noticed that I stole the snitch our last match." He held up the golden ball, and Sirius looked over from his essay.

"They're going to catch you one day, and I'm going to laugh."

The rest of that day passed rather uneventfully, though Remus kept giving James odd looks. John suspected the werewolf was suspicious of the group's behavior as of late. There had been several times when he'd nearly walked in on their conversations about his 'furry little problem' or the struggles of becoming an Animagus. Allie also had a difficult time lying, and she often blundered with their excuses as to what they were really doing. Sirius was the one who covered for her most of the time, and the two were rather close. Sometimes John wondered if Sirius had unofficially adopted her as a younger sister, and sometimes Allie acted just like him. It was a bit odd, but mostly amusing. Their sibling-like relationship didn't come without teasing, and meaningless arguments between them were endlessly entertaining.

A few days later, John had been walking about after classes, getting lost in his thoughts as per usual. He enjoyed being around the Marauders, though he often felt he didn't fit in with them. The only one of them he really knew how to act around was Remus. It wasn't just because John fancied him, it was more about his personality in general. He really was rather pleasant to be around. Lily was probably his closest friend at the magic school other than Allie. In fact, the two redheads almost felt like family. John often felt happiest when it was just the three of them. They could talk about anything and everything together, tell terrible jokes, and help each other with homework amongst other things.

Throughout the course of fourth year, John drifted vaguely away from his dormmates in terms of closeness. He barely knew anything about Peter, James was a bit too confident and overbearing, and Sirius seemed to hate being serious. Remus was the only one he talked to regularly, as they often sat together in class. Somehow, their strengths and weaknesses played off of each other, Remus helping him in Transfiguration, and John helping Remus in Potions. Even in classes neither of them were particularly bad in, they would pair together due to the sheer familiarity of working together. Remus claimed that it was better than working with James or Sirius, as they wouldn't work hard enough in class, and he would rather work with John over Peter any day. Just because it was nice to spend time with him outside of the dorm room and hospital wing.

John stopped by the Great Lake, looking towards the Forbidden Forest. He recalled the howling he'd heard the night he discovered Remus was a werewolf. It wouldn't make much sense for there to be werewolves in the forest. Where would they go when it wasn't the full moon? How would they stay contained in the forest when the only instinct they have is to attack humans? The more John thought about it, the more he debunked that theory. Unfortunately, that still left no explanation for the howling. Were there honestly just normal wolves prowling about the Forbidden Forest? That seemed highly unlikely in a place with such high magic-concentration. Even still, he didn't have proof that such creatures didn't go about the forest, but-

"Oi, John!" John blinked, turning to face the voice. "Check out this cool rock!" Allie seemed to be waving said rock in the air, running towards him.

John smiled. He had to appreciate her knack for breaking him out of his thoughts, as of late. Sometimes he wondered if he was even a Gryffindor still. The House system seemed a bit flawed to him. As the redhead approached him, he noted that she had grown taller than him at some point. He cursed his short stature as she showed him the rock, leaning down slightly to match his height level. It was a rather 'cool' rock as Allie put it. There seemed to be stripes of different hues, though all in all it was still rather pale and grey. John almost questioned why she was so excited about it when she flipped it over, revealing what he could only assume was some type of opal embedded in it. The colours in the opal were primarily warm colours.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool. Another one for your collection?"

"You know it!" She laughed, and John only smiled at her. It was after a few minutes of Allie telling him the story of how its discovery that she stopped talking.

"Is something wrong?" He questioned.

"No, I'm just realizing how much you've changed." She smiled. "You've mellowed out a lot. Sure you're still a Gryffindor?" John blinked, vaguely wondering if Allie was a Legilimens.

"Oh, shut it." In any case, he was just glad she was still his best friend.

Even if she was making him go to the Forbidden Forest with her the next full moon.

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**_Word Count: 2,476_**

**I don't know about you but the ending felt really choppy and I'm not satisfied with this chapter but I'm sure I'll like it when I reread it tomorrow. haha.**

**ANYWAYS! I'm going to be updating this fic every Sunday (it's still technically Sunday where I am okay shut up I'm on schedule still) until I reach like, chapter 21 I think?**

**In actuality, I'm going to be posting at least one fanfic/chapter of one of my works EVERY DAY until August 12th!**

**I know this is a bit of an odd place to be advertising this, as this is my only Harry Potter fanfic, but the other fandoms I'm currently writing for are:**

**Fire Emblem Awakening (3 multi chapter fics), Fire Emblem Fates (1 multi chapter, 3 series of AUs), and How to Train Your Dragon (1 multi chapter)**

**If you're interested, please check out my profile for more details, and feel free to PM me!**


	18. Chapter 17

The next full moon, John found himself walking with Remus and Poppy to the Whomping Willow, as was usual on a full moon. He chattered away to Remus, in an attempt to keep his mind off of the transformation. That was the monthly routine for them, and Remus had mentioned at some point that John rambling about whatever popped into his head actually made him feel better most of the time. Something about there being so much in the world to ponder, whether it was important or not. Apparently the sheer multitude of thoughts that John threw out put Remus, and in extension, the wolf, in a less violent mood. John wasn't allowed to actually follow them into the Shrieking Shack, but he walked with them until just before the tunnel ended. After this, Poppy would make sure everything was secure before wishing Remus good luck and walking John back to Gryffindor Tower.

That specific night, the plan was for John to go through with this routine, as per usual, and return to let the others know Remus was accounted for. When he returned to the common room, the Marauders sans Remus were waiting for him. There were still people in the room, but they must have all figured nothing was suspicious about them sneaking out at night. They were the Marauders, after all. Well. John wasn't, but he hung out with them often enough for people to think he was. The four of them snuck out into the dark corridor, darting into a hidden passageway nearby. They stopped by the kitchens, where Allie was waiting for them, before the group made their way out onto the castle grounds. A howl could be heard in the distance, and the group stayed quiet. That would be Remus transforming.

"That sounds like it hurts." John nodded at Allie.

"All of his bones have to break and reform in the shape of an actual wolf." The group had reached the edge of the forest. "And then again, after he's been clawing and biting at himself, so he can turn human again." Peter shuddered.

"I'd hate to be in his shoes."

"Well, he's not exactly wearing any shoes at this point, I'd wager." James laughed, though it was clear that it was more for the sake of producing an air of normalcy between the lot of them.

"We're at the edge of the forest." Allie piped up. "Are we… really going to do this?" She seemed somewhat apprehensive, but not nervous.

"You're with a band of Gryffindor boys, Allie." Sirius popped his knuckles. "In fact, I'll go in alone if I have to!"

Sirius walked into the woods with no hesitation. Allie followed immediately, causing John to go in as well. James followed his friends, and Peter rushed after, not wanting to be alone. They walked a long while without encountering any creatures, though it was possible that they'd just gotten lucky. The group reached a clearing of some sort, James and Sirius at the front of the group. Sirius put his hand out, causing James to walk into it. Before the bespectacled boy could protest, Sirius made a shushing motion, gesturing to something in the shadows across the clearing. Allie walked forward to get a better look, gasping when she identified the creature.

"Is that a hippogriff!?" She covered her mouth immediately as the animal's head snapped in their direction. "Oh, bollocks." James sighed.

"If we've already been noticed, may as well stop hiding, eh?" \

He walked out into the clearing, along with Sirius. Allie and John followed shortly after, with Peter looking like he wanted to stay behind until the redhead dragged him along. The hippogriff rustled its feathers, looking at them wearily. John thought it looked rather irritated. Perhaps they'd interrupted its preening? Regardless, its bronze coat looked rather majestic from the light of their wands. The humans looked at each other, likely trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Peter was quaking in his robes, though it looked as if the other two Marauder boys were ready to do something reckless. John yawned slightly, and it was Allie who spoke.

"So, no sudden movements?" James shrugged, turning into a stag without warning. The hippogriff let out a startled screech, adopting a rather hostile position.

"James, don't fight the hippogriff." John deadpanned.

"He's going to fight the hippogriff." Sirius sniggered.

"James, do _not _fight the hippogriff!" Allie practically shouted. James seemed to be ignoring all of them as the two animals began to circle each other.

"Y-you know, this p-probably a really bad i-idea…" Peter shuddered.

"This is a terrible idea, he's going to get himself killed." Allie stated. "Hippogriffs may be beautiful and majestic, but they're also very deadly when provoked!" John reminded himself that Allie's favorite class was Care of Magical Creatures.

"I kinda wanna see what happens." Sirius laughed, leaning against a tree. John groaned.

"James you're _not _going to fight that hippogriff!" He marched between the animals, pushing James away. "We didn't come to the Forbidden Forest to watch you get destroyed by this thing!" James snorted slightly, allowing John to push him. The hippogriff cawed in slight anger. What the hell was this human doing? That stag was going to be dead meat!

"You don't know that." Sirius said, still enjoying the scene.

"I do know that, in fact, and-" The hippogriff shrieked, suddenly running off into the dark woods. "- what was that about?"

The five of them (James, turned back into a human) gathered around the direction the animal had run off in. A moment of bickering passed, with Allie scolding James for being an idiot. Sirius was laughing his rather dog-like laugh, and Peter smiled awkwardly. John shivered slightly, turning away from the group and taking a few steps away. He actually wasn't very good with wild animals. They made him rather nervous, if he was being honest with himself. That was why he pushed James away instead of trying to calm the hippogriff down. He knew James. He didn't know the hippogriff. John was startled out of his thoughts by a low growling, and he backed up, back to where his friends were standing. He had the realization that they didn't seem to hear the growling, and his attempts to get their attention weren't successful.

"Guys…" He mumbled, and Allie seemed to notice his nerves.

"Wait, everyone, stop talking."

"Wha-" James was interrupted by another growl. "Bloody hell." A pack of wolves seemed to be approaching them.

"Are those w-werewolves?" Peter shivered.

"No, werewolves have shorter snouts." Allie snipped, ever the expert on magical creatures. "Besides, if they were actually werewolves-"

"I don't really care what specifics we would be getting into, but can we please go?" John put a very strained smile on his face.

"You think we're trespassing in their territory? Wolves are territorial."

"Allie, you aren't helping!" John backed away. "Let's follow that hippogriff, it looked more friendly!"

"Oi, John, you okay there?" Sirius asked in mild concern. John was acting somewhat odd.

"Let's just go, come on."

John practically shoved them off in a different direction and the group rushed away from the wolves. Allie patted him on the back and smiled, likely trying to make him feel better. He shook his head, and they continued on, with James and Sirius joking around as usual. John found that he wasn't particularly enjoying himself, and neither was Peter. Allie seemed to have joined the two jokesters in their antics, but John kind of just wanted to go back to his dorm room and sleep. It was after quite a lot of wondering that John had to ask a question.

"So, what exactly is our goal out here? Like, I know we're somehow trying to see if this helps with our Animagus transformations, but I'm not sure how the hell." Sirius shrugged.

"Maybe one of us'll get attacked and someone else will be overly protective and transform." John blinked.

"Our goal is to get attacked." He deadpanned.

"What, no, that's not what I-"

"Shit!"

John lost his footing, tripping over an oddly shaped part of the forest floor. He slid down a rather inconveniently placed slope, landing on some sort of sticky substance. It was with a start that he realized it was a rather large spider-web, though it seemed as if it wasn't where it was supposed to be. John groaned, trying to stand, but slipping in the oddly discarded piece of webbing. Putting pressure on his right foot revealed that it was injured in some way, though he doubted it was too serious. His friends joined him at the bottom of the slope after a moment, helping him out of the sticky web. John frowned, looking around.

"I'm thinking m-maybe we shouldn't be in this part of the forest. I don't want to m-meet whatever made _that_." Peter said shakily, backing away from the web.

"Well, that's a pretty good plan, I'd say."

John limped in the same direction as Peter. As they continued on their way. It wasn't long before they realized there was an increased number of spiders scuttling about, and they probably chose the wrong direction to head in. They turned around, and John stumbled slightly due to his injured foot. It wasn't a real issue until he heard a clicking sound behind him, and he froze up. When he turned around he was faced with a rather hairy looking leg. John looked up, not really wanting to, but his body and mind didn't seem to be cooperating. If they were, he probably would have been running away by that point, or whipping his wand out to set the damn thing on fire. Before he really knew what was happening, the spider had lifted him from the ground. He vaguely registered his friend shouting and pulling their wands out. As he tried to do the same, the stick of wood fell from his hands, and in that moment, the fear drove him to do what he'd thought was impossible at that moment.

John Smith turned into a bird. The acromantula, with nothing to hold onto, looked around in confusion, granting the young witch and wizards the chance to cast incendio at the ground near its feet. It was with slight panic that he realized he had no idea how to fly, and the flames were growing ever closer to him, and his wand. Flapping his wings seemed to be breaking the speed of his fall, but he still had no clue as to how to use them properly. He landed on the ground with a soft thud, wincing as he realized his foot injury was still present. John was greatly frustrated by his miniature size at this point, for though it made him a much more difficult target, it also made it near impossible for him to carry anything, or salvage his wand. He heard Sirius's voice ring out with surprising, well, seriousness.

"James, those flames aren't getting any smaller! Get John before he's burned alive or gets stepped on by a spider!" He smacked his friend on the arm.

"There's kind of a wall of fire-"

"You're exaggerating, now turn into a stag, because you're the only one who can turn into a beast and jump through that fire without much consequence."

James followed his friend's orders, likely surprised by his authoritative air. After picking up the bird very carefully (he was a tiny bird!), he returned to the others, setting John down into Allie's hand. The acromantula seemed to be getting over its confusion, and they all bolted away from the scene. John stayed in Allie's hands, not really wanting to run with his injured foot, and also not completely sure _how _to return to his human form. They ran into a few more spiders as they were making their escape, very narrowly getting out of the acromantula's general territory. It took a few minutes for them to catch their breath, save for James, who had been a stag as they were running. The group had managed to find themselves back in the clearing they'd ran into the hippogriff and wolves, deciding to take a proper breather.

James, Sirius, and Peter sat down in the grass, ignoring the somewhat root-covered and uncomfortable seats. Allie had placed John on the ground, and he seemed to resemble a small ball of feathers. She giggled slightly at him before she mentioned something about his wand. They left it by the acromantula, didn't they? Sirius had a smug expression on his face as he held up the willow stick, and Allie snatched it from him excitedly. She gave him a rather generous hug before slipping it into the pocket of her robe and claiming she would be right back. Something about making sure they weren't being followed. Allie didn't return until she heard a startled peeping sound, and she ran back to the clearing as fast as she could. Seeing the wolf pack from earlier getting closer to a rather frightened looking John, she jumped protectively in front of him, growling at the wolves. She blinked, ceasing her growling almost immediately, wondering what in the world happened to her eyesight, why in the name of Merlin she growled (of all things!), and of course, why the wolves seemed so much larger.

Allie let out a sudden whimper, realizing that she was, in fact, not human at that moment. It almost seemed as if her sudden transformation had been triggered by her protective feelings for the figure she viewed as her mess of an older brother, and she hadn't noticed at the time because she was so focussed on getting back to him. One of the wolves approached, and she growled again, stopping only when the wolf stopped to sit in front of her. The two of them made eye contact, Allie sitting as well. After a moment of different sorts of noises and movements, they seemed to have determined that the other wasn't a threat, and before she knew what was happening, Allie began to play with them. The Marauders started laughing after they realized that the animal in front of them was actually Allie, who had managed to turn into a dingo.

John peeped quietly as he fluttered his way over to James, Sirius, and Peter, before realizing that Sirius had gone and unlocked his ability to turn into a dog. He suspected it had something to do with wanting to join in on the fun. James picked John up, placing him in the nest he called a hairstyle. John thought it was actually surprisingly comfortable. At that point, Peter was the only one left untransformed, and that was the way it stayed for a while. After a few moments of trying to turn back to their human forms, the group made its way back to the castle, with John turning back into a bird after confirming he could, in fact, be human again. It was strangely freeing, and he enjoyed being a bird much more than he did being a human. This probably had something to do with the fact that birds don't have breasts. He moved to rest in Allie's mop of bright red hair instead.

"You know, I think all the transformations were triggered by some kind of strong emotion." Allie stated. "I transformed when I was worried for John. John transformed when he was scared for his life…"

"And I transformed because I wanted to punch a wolf." Sirius joked, Allie laughing along. "What about you, mate?"

"Me? Nah, I just transformed because I'm cool like that." James looked smug.

"My theory is that he did something he thought was cool and he was so damn proud of himself that he just wanted to show off. To himself." The group continued to laugh, and as they separated from Allie, it seemed as if everything was just fine. John returned to his human form momentarily.

"I think maybe I should go to the hospital wing. My ankle's probably sprained, and I think that burn on my wing carried over to my arm, because it hurts like a bitch." James gave him a weird look.

"Your funeral." John realized he was referring to the fact that it was past curfew.

"Oh, I'll be fine." He smiled. "Poppy loves me, and even if I _do _get caught before I get there, I'm sure I can come up with an excuse."

"A-Are you s-sure about that, John?"

"Yep!"

He walked off, away from his three dormmates as he headed towards the hospital wing. When he walked in, it was with a yawn, and Poppy was by his side momentarily. He supposed she probably had some sort of charm that alerted her when anyone entered the room. After a bit of sleepy mumbling, Poppy treated his very mild injuries, and offered to let John spend the night there, as Gryffindor tower was quite a ways a way, and it was certainly way past curfew. John accepted her offer, laying down in one of the beds furthest the entrance. She asked if he needed anything after practically forcing him to remove his binder (for health reasons), and he thought for a moment.

"Could you wake me up when you go to get Remus in the morning?"

"Why, of course, dear. That is, if you won't be queasy, seeing him naked and covered in blood from his self-inflicted injuries." John frowned before nodding.

"I'll help take care of him." Poppy smiled.

"Only if you go to sleep right this instant, young man!" She poked his nose before heading back to bed herself. John only had one thought before falling asleep.

"Allie still has my wand."

* * *

**_Word Count: 2,957_**

**I'm so sorry about how late this is! I don't even have the excuse of it still being Sunday over here, because it isn't Sunday anymore!**

**I've almost fallen out of love with this story. Nobody has given me any feedback in quite some time and the writing feels awkward to me. I'd like it if someone could give me anything to go off of, because my most recent two chapters have felt, well, _bad. _Even the older ones aren't all that good due to weird inconsistencies (I stated that John couldn't cook, then had him bake a delicious apple pie, and he then went on to imply that his mum was a witch who brewed potions after it's very clearly been stated that he's Muggleborn? That, and I still haven't gotten around to changing Allie's name from Becky in the earlier chapters? I'm so sorry this fanfic is a mess, and I am well aware of it so please do not tell me what I already know because I'm already beating myself up about it without your help ;v; )**

**I didn't like this one because it felt like it was just an excuse to get everyone (except Peter for some reason?) to be able to turn into their Animagus form... The only other thing that really happened was a little insight on how John helps Poppy with Remus, but that's honestly it.**

**It would mean so much to me if anybody could tell me anything :c**

**On another note, just a casual reminder to check out my poll/profile if you would be so kind.**

**Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, because I really just am not seeing the appeal of this fic anymore :c**


	19. Chapter 18

The rest of fourth year passed smoothly, and John rode the train back to King's Cross Station with the Marauders. There was a lot of joking around, obviously. Sirius had plans to go to the Potter household and spend the summer there. It occurred to John that he still hadn't asked him about certain things he'd said. Especially about the setting of his Animagus vision. That was particularly concerning. Of course, John hadn't remembered until it was too late, and the entire group was together. He supposed he could ask him next year (it didn't seem like a proper conversation topic for a letter, after all). As the train pulled into the station, he yawned, looking forward to seeing Allie's parents again sometime soon. He'd grown rather fond of them over the course of the previous two summers, and though it may sound odd to some, he liked to consider himself friends with his best friend's parents. James had also mentioned inviting all of them over to his house later that summer, in addition to Sirius. John doubted his parents would let him go, but a boy could dream, couldn't he?

"Oi, John, we're here." Remus's voice brought John out of his thought.

"Oh!" He flushed. "Thanks."

John rushed out of the door, following the group out to the platform after getting his things together. He thought he saw Sirius's parents, but they seemed to be ignoring their eldest son in favor of his younger brother, Regulus. Sirius didn't seem to be in too much of a rush to get to his family. Him and James seemed to be looking off at something behind John. He looked at his friends curiously before turning around. His eyes widened immediately, and he felt a slight amount of panic at the sight of his parents. They always waited on the muggle side! What in the world were they doing!? Allie's parents seemed to be with them, and John began to chew on his lip, wishing they had stayed on the muggle platform. His mother waved to him, a huge smile on her face.

"Is that your mum?" James asked, and John laughed uncomfortably.

"Umm, yeah, I'd best be off then."

"What, no way! If we're all going to hang out over the summer your parents've gotta know who you'll be getting up to mischief with!" John could feel his heart beating wildly in his throat. This wasn't what he wanted.

"N-no, I really don't think that's-"

"Melanie!" They got closer. John thought he saw Allie nearby, and he wondered where she had spent her train ride. Probably with her other Hufflepuff friends, and the Slytherins as well.

"Who's Melanie?" Sirius questioned, and John turned to face away from both his friends and his parents.

"I'm going to go." He made to leave, but James kept him in place by tugging at his sleeve. "James, let me-"

"There's our darling daughter!" His mother gushed, causing his friends to look at him in confusion. "Are these your friends?"

"Er, John?"

"Which one is John?" His mother questioned, looking rather peppy. John wondered if she got her hair done recently. She was usually peppy after a haircut. "Oh dear, sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Melanie's mother, but you can call me Mrs. Smith." She smiled at them.

"Mum, can we just go?" John asked, in a rather sour tone. Mrs. Smith looked miffed.

"But I've never met any of your new friends! Why are they all boys?"

"Because they are." He didn't exactly want to tell her he was, in fact, rooming with four other boys.

"What about Allie? Didn't you say she went here? I was talking to her mother a few moments ago. Honestly, I can't believe she's going to let her daughter shave part of her head. Is that just a wizard thing, having short hair? If I had it my way, your hair would be at _least_ shoulder length."

"Mum. I want to leave."

"Hey, umm, can someone explain what's going on here?" James voiced his confusion, Sirius and Peter nodding along with him. John supposed Remus left earlier, when he wasn't paying attention.

"Ah, Melanie!" Allie's voice called out. She grabbed John's arm. "Come on, my parents are waiting for us to get to the portkey!"

"I- umm, yeah, oka-"

"Melanie?" Sirius repeated, confused. "But that's-" Allie blew a raspberry at him.

"What did you think Mels was short for? Come on, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the portkey won't last forever! I doubt you want to try getting back home without magic. That'd take ages."

"Wait, Allie!" Sirius pulled her away as John and his parents went to the meeting place. "What in Merlin's beard are you lot going on about?" Allie glanced back at John and his parents, making sure they're out of earshot.

"I don't have the time to explain right now, and I really don't think this is the kind of thing to talk about in a letter, but I'll try to explain it the next time I see you. My mum and her boyfriend are sure to let me go over to James's house later this summer, so I'll tell you then if John lets me. It's really not my business to be talking about this without his say-so." Sirius frowned, nodding.

"Alright, then… I… I'm not really sure what's going on, but he looked really uncomfortable. Let him know we're sort of worried?" He sounded a bit awkward, likely not used to showing any real compassion for anyone besides his brother. Allie smiled.

"I'll tell him, promise."

Allie gave him a quick hug before dashing off to catch up with John. The two walked behind John's parents, Allie giving John a sympathetic pat. John smiled weakly at her, appreciating her quick thinking that allowed him not to deal with the large amount of drama that would result from his friends' confusion. They reached meeting point, greeting Allie's mother and her boyfriend, Conrad. John and Allie liked to call him Connie, but that was neither here nor there. The portkey was an old handkerchief that had been chewed on by some sort of dog at some point. He experienced the familiarly odd feeling of being hooked by the navel before being carried to the Whitney household's backyard. The entire group stumbled a bit, save for Allie and her mother, Mary. John used Allie for support, succeeding in not falling over.

They all went into Mary's house for a spot of tea, prepared beforehand by the house elf, Moodey. Moodey was the last of his family, with very low chances of continuing the family bloodline. Not that house elves cared about that sort of thing. Contrary to what one might expect, Moodey tended to be very cheerful, despite his old age, and was always quite eager to help. The Whitney family wasn't particularly rich, nor were they purebloods, but nobody could take their house elf away. Moodey's family had served them for generations, and they wouldn't stop just because Mary's father married a muggle. It was clear that house elves made John's parents uncomfortable, but John quite liked Moodey. He was a pleasant elf, after all. Moodey was sent to take John and Allie's trunks to their rooms before returning. It seemed he was baking some sort of pastry. John thought Moodey made some pretty tasty pastries.

"Mum, Connie, you won't _believe_ how many times James asked Lily out this year. Figure he's going for a world record?" Conrad laughed.

"World record for what, world's sorest loser?" Mary let out an undignified snort.

"Which one is James?" John's mother, Annette, questioned.

"Oh, he's the silly boy with the glasses." Mary provided. "He's the Potter boy, isn't he? Ah, I remember going to school with his father." She sighed. "He looks just like his old man."

"What, does you child not tell you about all the mischief they all get up to?" Conrad questioned.

"I had no idea there was any mischief to be had! You'd think a magic school would try to have stricter rules to make sure things don't get out of hand." Annette huffed.

"Let's see, there's James, and Sirius, and Peter, and Remus, and there's also Lily, but I don't get to hang out with her as much as Melanie does, because I'm not a Gryffindor."

"What about John?" When she received no response, Annette tried to elaborate. "On the platform, they were talking about someone named John."

"Oh, that's Remus." John stated, looking into his half-drained cup of tea. "With all the mischief, you have to have code names sometimes. Remus's middle name is John." Annette seemed to accept the lie, though his father looked at him a little oddly.

"Oh, mum, speaking of all our friends, James invited the lot of us to stay at Potter Manor later this summer. I can go, right? I promise to finish all of my summer work first!" Mary raised a brow in amusement, exchanging glances with her boyfriend.

"And stay on top of your chores?"

"Yes! I do all of it! I'll even clean my room!" Mary laughed.

"_Hölle_, how could we deny that?" Conrad received an unamused look from his girlfriend. "I meant _teufel_."

"That's not any better, darling." She sing-songed, and Conrad mouthed a word to her that made her groan. "Why is it that after knowing you for so long, the only german either of us know is curse words."

"I'm going to take that as a 'yes darling, you can go because you're such a perfect little angel,' okay?" Allie smiled.

Mary had to agree that that was basically what her answer was, albeit with more needless compliments. Annette stood up with her husband, William, claiming that they would love to stay and chat, but it had gotten almost dark outside, and there were important things they had to talk about. The two families separated, exchanging hugs and handshakes before the Smiths were on their way. John was quiet, and he immediately went up to his room despite the fact that his mother claimed there were important things to talk about. He started work on his summer work, planning on getting it all done before wasting the rest of his summer familiarizing himself with being a tiny bird. He'd read a few chapters of his potions book before he heard his father call him down for dinner. The meal was passed rather quietly, as Annette and William talked about patients they had that day. It wasn't until the end of the meal that it seemed anything important was going to be spoken of.

"So, we've been thinking about your schooling opportunities, lately." His mother began.

"Really?" He made an effort to sound bored.

"We know you've always wanted to be a doctor-"

"A healer, actually. That's what they're called in the wizarding world."

"Well, we know you want to be a healer, so I thought it would be best if you could get the best educational opportunities you could…" John didn't really like where this was going. His mother pulled out a white box that probably had cake in it.

"So… we got you a transfer to Beauxbatons!" They cheered as they opened the cake box. It contained a pale blue cake, displaying the word 'Bienvenue!' in loopy, silver, cursive icing. The school crest was just below it.

"..." He looked up from the cake and at their faces. "But I've already spent four years at Hogwarts. I won't have any friends."

"But think of the learning opportunities! And you'll be able to write your friends all the time, and come back to see them on holidays! It'll be a wonderful experience." Annette reassured him.

"Er, yeah, I suppose it will be." He thought of all he would be losing. What was the point of him becoming an animagus if he couldn't even help the one he did it for? "I think I'm going to go to my room."

"Oh, she's going to have so much fun!" Annette gushed, causing her husband to smile.

John laid back on his bed. He could fight to stay at Hogwarts, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't at least a small bit curious as to how school would be different at Beauxbatons. They had stricter uniform rules, but John thought he remembered hearing somewhere that they didn't have a house system. He would miss his friends, but Sirius had the two-way mirrors. Perhaps he would want to lend him the other one? On the other hand, he would lose the support of Poppy and McGonagall… Nobody would be able to take care of Remus… Unless he could get special permission somehow? He really did want to try out Beauxbatons, but there would be a lot of thought on his part. The last thing he thought about before falling asleep was if he should bring up James's invitation to his parents.

* * *

**_Word Count: 2,158_**

**Andddd, here's the late chapter! Sorry if it feels a little short, or if it's not arranged well ^^; I got the idea of John going to Beauxbatons for his last three years like, two days ago and I've been thinking about it a lot actually!**

**It's completely different from what I'm planning, so I really apologize for the lack of sense on where I'm going with the story! I'll be focusing more on his path to becoming a Healer/Mediwizard, as well as thinking about how school at Beauxbatons could differ from Hogwarts!**

**This is based on the books, of course, so I'd like to take a moment to say that Beauxbatons is coed, unlike the movies, where it was girls only**

**I hope you enjoy this little plot twist (it's partially to get John away from the main drama/action for a while so that he doesn't change REALLY important events in the books!) and I look forward to writing this**

**Just a quick reminder that the poll on my profile will be open until the 19th of August!**

**Hope you enjoyed, and see you next week!**


	20. Chapter 19

John stayed in his room for the first week or so of summer. He told Allie he wanted to be alone to finish his schoolwork as soon as possible, especially so he could have that leverage with his parents when he asked if he could spend the summer at the Potter household. Of course, there was also the thought of Beauxbatons on his mind. What he knew of the school was only from small mentions he'd heard about Hogwarts, and the few references his schoolbooks had made. It occurred to John that he was fifteen. His birthday had been the first of June, though nobody celebrated due to him not telling anybody about it. Allie had wished him a happy birthday, giving him candy, but nobody else had known about it. The only reason she hadn't told anybody was because he told her he didn't really like people getting him gifts when all he did was start to exist. His mother had been the one to do all the work, after all. John went to seek out his father when he'd finished all of his schoolwork.

"Dad?" He was reading a book of some sort. "I was wondering if I could spend the rest of summer at James's place." John sat down on the couch near his old man.

"Who else is going to be there?" He questioned.

"Allie is going to be there for sure, and so is Sirius. I'm not sure about Peter or Remus, though." He hadn't heard Peter mention anything, and he wasn't sure if Remus would want to risk going to his friend's house considering his condition.

"And you're not worried, being in a house full of boys?" John frowned.

"Why should I be? They're my friends."

"Well, I just worry about you, sometimes. You never talk to your mum and I anymore." John frowned.

"Well, I…" He paused. "I'm not your daughter. Allie is going to be the only girl there, aside from James's mum, I'm assuming." He continued speaking before his father could say anything. "I lied when I said John was Remus. They were talking about me." His father opened his mouth before closing it, having no idea what to say. "I'm going to Allie's house."

He stood from the couch, walking away from his father without saying another word. His heart was pounding, and he had no idea why he decided to come out right then. Sometimes he could be rather impulsive, and he wasn't quite sure what the result would be. When he knocked on the door to his friend's house, he was greeted by Mary, who invited him inside rather cheerfully. Conrad seemed to be in the kitchen, cooking some sort of dish up. John supposed it was nearly dinnertime as he went up to Allie's room. Allie herself seemed to be whistling a tune to someone. Upon entering the room, he realized it was a small, bright yellow bird.

"When did you get that?" Allie stopped her whistling, though the bird kept going.

"Who, Sunnie? Mum bought her for me the day we got back." Sunnie stopped chirping, tilting its head at John in curiosity. He sat on Allie's bed, facing her spot at her desk chair.

"I think Sunnie is a bloke." Allie blinked at his claim.

"What makes you say that?"

"I dunno, intuition." He shifted to be his bird form, flying to perch on Allie's shoulder. Him and Sunnie chirped at each other several times before he returned to the bed, changing back. "Yeah, he's a bloke. I don't think he really cares, though."

"Huh. The breeders lied to us then." Allie let Sunnie fly about, smiling at John. "How's your summer been?"

"Oh, I've just been getting all of my schoolwork out of the way. It's been pretty boring. I also think I came out to my dad before I came here."

"Wait, you what?" She looked at him, startled. "How did he take it?"

"I dunno, I left before he could say anything. It was kind of impulsive. D'you think Sunnie can carry mail?" Allie frowned at his random subject change, but decided not to pursue the matter.

"She's no owl, so I doubt she could. Not to mention the fact that she's a muggle animal, and only about what, eighteen centimeters?" The budgie perched himself atop Allie's ceiling fan, which wasn't in motion. It may have been summer, but it wasn't very hot that day.

"I guess you have a point. You reckon Beauxbatons has an owlery like Hogwarts?" John laid on his back, looking up at the fan Sunnie was resting on.

"What's this about Beauxbatons?" He turned his head to look at Allie.

"Mum and dad got me a scholarship there. They think it'll be better for my medical career." His eyebrows furrowed, as he still wasn't sure how he felt about it.

"I kind of wanted to go to Beauxbatons. I've heard they've got all the cute girls." John snorted slightly at that. Of course that's what Allie was thinking. "That's so far away, though… Do you have to go?"

"I think… I could probably convince my parents to keep me at Hogwarts, but… Beauxbatons is such an amazing opportunity. But I don't want to leave Remus alone on the full moons… Maybe I can convince them to let me go back to Hogwarts every full moon." Allie seemed to recognized John's conflict.

"I think you should go for it. Not many people get this opportunity, and you could even learn French while you're at it!"

"You think so?"

It was at that point that the two of them were called down for dinner. Allie put Sunnie in his cage before heading down, John following close behind. He was rather quiet during the meal, only adding to the chatter occasionally. His friend seemed to understand his silence, and her guardians were used to him being quiet when something was on his mind. Should he fight to stay at Hogwarts? He felt somewhat out of place in the dorm room. It would be wrong to say he was particularly close to any of his dormmates barring Remus. Of his fellow students, he could only really say he was close friends with Allie, Lily, and Remus. He would miss Poppy and Professor McGonagall as well, though… In his four years he'd spent at the school so far, the two of them had been a great support for him, both being a weird sort of mixture between a grandmother and a friend. John supposed he would try to write the two of them as soon as he could. It wasn't something he'd ever done before, but his concern for Remus's well being was placed above most other things on his list of priorities. He couldn't just leave the other boy, after all.

After dinner, John thanked Conrad and Mary for the meal, saying goodbye to the family of three before heading outside. The sun hadn't quite set yet, though he knew it probably would within the hour. Glancing around, he debated whether or not he wanted to sneak into his room to avoid a confrontation with his parents or not. It wasn't a very long debate, and he decided against it in the end. The walk home wasn't too long, lasting only around twenty minutes despite his slow pace and the distractions of his surroundings. Ever since growing used to his animagus form, he'd noticed the sounds of birds much clearer than before. He wondered if Allie felt the same with dogs, or if a dingo was too different to make that connection. When he got home, his parents were waiting for him in the living room. Annette had a frown on her face.

"Hello, mum, dad." He greeted as pleasantly as he could.

"Melanie-"

"And goodbye." He didn't even wait for his mother to finish her sentence before heading upstairs. Instead of going to his room, however, he sat on the top step, out of sight so he could listen to their conversation without being spotted.

"Annette, I thought we went over this." It was his father. "I thought you always wanted to have a son anyways."John blinked. Had she really? Why in the world did she force him to be so feminine if that was the case?

"Oh, but that was years ago, and such a little thing. I was happy with a daughter. Now I don't know what to think." There was a moment of silence, and John cursed the fact that, while his seat _did_ keep him from being spotted, he couldn't see his parents either.

"I don't know if there really is anything to think. Melanie is John now." John wondered if his father had known someone who wasn't your usual cisgender heterosexual, or if he was just strangely accepting of such deviations.

"But our precious little girl…" Annette sighed.

"Our darling daughter is our dear son, now."

John decided he'd had enough of eavesdropping at that point. If he knew his parents, he knew that the course of their conversation would end with his father convincing his mother to see things the way they were. He stood from his spot on the stairs, heading to his room. It was unfortunate that he didn't own an owl (he'd always just rely on the school owls, or his friends' owls), but he supposed he could borrow Allie's, if she had one. John realized he should probably get himself an owl before heading off to Beauxbatons (if that was what he decided on). He got started writing letters, frowning as he realized he would have to send at least to one to three different people, those people being Poppy, Professor McGonagall, and Madame Maxime. There was no point in dawdling, he supposed, so he decided he may as well get to it as soon as possible.

'Dear Poppy,

My parents recently told me they managed to get me a scholarship at Beauxbatons. I think it'd be a really great opportunity, but what do you think? I think I'd miss you, but I've always wanted to go to France, and be a doctor (not at the same time) so that fulfills both of those. I was just kind of worried about Remus, though. I've been helping out every month, and it doesn't feel right to leave him behind… Do you think it'd be possible for me to come back every month? I haven't spoken to Madame Maxime yet, but I'm going to send her a letter. It might help if you could talk to her.

Sincerely, John'

Satisfied with that short letter, he folded it, putting it in an envelope before continuing on to Professor McGonagall's letter.

'Dear Professor McGonagall,

Did you know that I got a scholarship to go to Beauxbatons? I don't really know what my parents did, but I think it'd be a great opportunity. Didn't the guy who made the Philosopher's Stone go there? Anyways, this letter is probably something I should have sent to Professor Dumbledore, but I wouldn't know what to say to him, if I'm being honest. You're a teacher, and I'm assuming you know about Remus's condition? I've been helping Poppy take care of him every month, and it would feel wrong to leave and stop doing that. I was wondering if it'd be possible for me to come back to Hogwarts every month to keep doing that. I'm going to send a letter to Madame Maxime, but I won't be able to go into detail with her without revealing his condition, so I was hoping you or Professor Dumbledore or Poppy could talk to her about it? Or maybe a meeting would be more convenient. I'm not completely sure. I'll miss your class (even though I was rubbish when it was spellwork instead of theory) and you, but I think Beaxbatons is a good choice for me.

Sincerely, John Smith'

With every letter he wrote, he felt more firm in the thought that yes, he was going to Beauxbatons.

'Dear Madame Maxime,

I've never met you before, but I believe I'm going to be going to your school next year. I would have been going into my fifth year at Hogwarts next year had my parents not informed me they got a scholarship for me at Beauxbatons. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but I'm really excited to go now. There's just a little problem I have… One of my friends at Hogwarts has a condition, and I've been helping him with it for a while now. I don't want to get into the details of it, but I was wondering if I could go back to Hogwarts once a month to check on him? I'm planning on becoming a healer, so it's good practice for me, I think.

Aside from that, I also wanted to say that my parents probably told you my name is Melanie Smith. I actually don't identify as female, so I would appreciate it very much if you could call me John. It's sort of complicated, so I don't want to talk about it, but I will if I must. That's all I wanted to say, really. I'd understand if you want more information, so we could have a meeting with myself, the mediwitch at Hogwarts (Poppy Pomfrey), and Professor Dumbledore if you'd like. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, I hope you consider my request.

Sincerely, John Smith'

And with that, he put the last letter in the envelope. He would ask Allie about an owl the next time he saw her, which would likely be the next day. John yawned, checking the time and seeing that it was getting rather late. The sky outside was dark, and he felt drowsy. With all his schoolwork done, he supposed there was nothing more for him to do to keep himself awake, save for read a book. He glanced at the cover of the next medical magic book he had to read before shaking his head and deciding against it. Sleep called for him, and he changed into more suitable sleepwear before passing out. He would deal with everything when he woke up.

* * *

**_Word Count: 2,375_**

**So sorry I missed last week, and that this is short. I've lost a lot of motivation for this fic, so;;;**

**I'll try to update again next week, but I can't promise anything, really ^^;**

**Yes, I'm breaking away from the usual setting and completely leaving behind some of my plans by switching to Beauxbatons, but hey I like France, what can I say?**

**Constructive criticism is welcome, as well as pretty much any reviews!**

**I'd like to take a quick moment to direct you to the poll on my profile to vote on which of my fics you'd like to see more of, and...**

**I hope to see you again?**


	21. IMPORTANT AN, PLEASE READ THIS

**So sorry there's no update this week! I probably won't update this again until maybe September (haha!) but that's only if you guys vote for it over on my profile!**

**I know I have like 30+ followers (and that's the MOST I've ever had on any of my fics!) but I'm regretful to say that this is the fic I probably have the LEAST motivation in**

**I'm much more invested in the Fire Emblem series, but if someone wants to chat with me about TtH I'll be MORE than happy to talk!**

**This fic might become a series that I just update whenever I get the motivation for it, and probably won't get a regular schedule due to the lack of votes it's gotten compared to other fics and series**

**So, very sorry, but please don't get your hopes up for a new chapter as I haven't even begun to write it and don't have the motivation to do so due to people not reviewing, PMing, or talking to me about the Harry Potter universe in general, whereas I'm ALWAYS playing Fire Emblem and talking about it with my friends!**

**I hope to see you again, and I KNOW I'll write this again one day, but until then, I hope you've enjoyed yourself.**

**Who knows? I may decide to rewrite the entire series before continuing! Merlin knows it's full of terrible inconsistencies... (I once implied that John's mother is a witch? He's a muggleborn!) I might even change John's name due to it kind of being my name... and he's really not me**


	22. Note of Discontinuation

**So, I don't know if you've checked the updated description, but I'm not going to be updating this anymore.**

**It's not that I particularly dislike the story, it's just sort of... immature. I wasn't really sure what I was doing when I started, and the plot didn't solidify in my head until very recently.**

**I also had MANY inconsistency errors, and the writing is sort of a mess? Examples would be: implying that John's mum was a witch even though he's muggleborn, saying John was bad at cooking before having him bake a pie, ALLIE'S NAME WOW, romance? what's going on there this doesn't make sense, why did Remus sit in their compartment first year isn't that against the book's canon, etc.**

**The new and improved TtH will be titled... well, something entirely different! I'm not sure yet... Jean's (I changed his name to be more French but he's still the same guy!) years of schooling will be split up into two separate fics: one for his years at Hogwarts, and another for his years at Beauxbatons. Then, there will probably be a third fic where Jean is an adult and working at Hogwarts as Madame Pomfrey's assistant! There MAY be a fourth fic with the next gen but I highly doubt it...**

**The (tentative) titles are as follows:**

**Jean Smith and the Hogwarts Years**

**Jean Smith and the... Beautiful Sticks? (Beauxbatons literally translates to Beautiful Sticks and that makes me laugh)**

**Jean Smith and Those Crazy Kids (full title: Jean Smith and Those Crazy Kids Who Can't Stop Hurting Themselves)**

**(?) Jean Smith and Those Crazy Kids' Kids (this one may or may not exist...)**

**I've typed 'kid' too many time and am having a hard time seeing it as a real word (i had to google it to make sure it was spelled right), but I like the continuity, haha.**

**I hope you are interested in reading the rewrite! I won't be posting it just yet, but when I do, I'll make a new author's note just in case you would like to be updated on that. Well, until then, goodbye! **


	23. Rewrite has begun

**So, I finally finished the first chapter of John Smith and the Years at Hogwarts, if any of you want to check it out!**

**I ended up keeping John's name because I felt like it.**

**This will be the last time this fic is ever 'updated' so if you're interested in my writing in the Harry Potter universe, please head on over to my profile and check out... what's the acronym now uh... JSatYaH? YaH? Let's just call it YaH.**

**Hope to see you in YaH!**


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